Automatic analysis of the sustainability of public procurement based on Text Mining: The case of the Moroccan ICT markets

Abstract The rapid growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) worldwide is increasing the consumption of energy and raw materials at unprecedented levels. As a result, the environmental footprint of the ICT sector is constantly increasing in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous substances and the unsustainable use of raw materials. To address these effects, countries can use Green Public Procurement (GPP) as an effective instrument to encourage compliance with environmental norms. The present study aims to assess the infiltration rate of sustainability in the procurement process in the public administration in Morocco. For this, we used Text Mining techniques with the purpose of analysing and evaluating tenders for the purchase of IT equipment. The results revealed that the infiltration rate of environmental issues is very low, which shows that more SPP efforts need to be deployed. In this context, we undertook the task of developing a decision-making tool inspired by our present work to support practitioners and other stakeholders in terms of the decision-making process and environmental monitoring.