The Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) has awarded the consulting firm Aymar Technical Advisory the technical assistance contract for the monitoring of its environmental management systems and health and safety at work, for an amount of 38,400 euros. The contract has an initial duration of two years and may be extended for three additional annual periods, up to a maximum of five years.
The award is below the base budget for bidding, set at 52,000 euros for the initial two years of the contract, which represents a decrease of approximately 26%. The estimated value of the file, counting the extensions, reaches 130,000 euros. The procedure followed has been the open one regulated by the Public Sector Contracts Law, with awarding based on the best value for money: the economic offer weighted 40% of the total score, while technical and qualitative criteria accounted for the remaining 60%, with special emphasis on the experience of the assigned personnel and the technical value of the proposal.
The work assigned to Aymar involves the environmental and preventive back office of the port: the internal processes that support the four certifications that the APBA has maintained uninterruptedly since 2011. These include ISO 14001:2015, an international environmental management standard; the European EMAS Regulation, which is more demanding than ISO and requires the publication of a verified environmental declaration; the PERS (Port Environmental Review System) certificate, developed by the European port organization ESPO specifically for the port sector; and ISO 45001:2018 for health and safety at work. All of them require periodic renewals, external audits, and a permanent review of internal procedures that the Port Authority cannot assume alone with the current staff of the Sustainability Department.
Among the tasks that the awarded contractor will take on are four annual face-to-face sessions for the general review of each system, updating of documentary control records, indicators, and non-conformities, and the preparation of the annual review meetings by management. The consulting firm will also conduct a complete internal audit of each system prior to the periodic audits carried out by the certification entities, and may accompany external auditors during those visits to prepare corrective action plans if deviations arise.
