Promoting the Implementation and Development of Socially Responsible Public Procurement in Czech Republic
SOCIAL
In the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA), has actively promoted responsible public procurement since 2014. As part of its endeavours to expand the application of these practices at the national level, MoLSA implemented the project entitled “Promoting the Implementation and Development of Socially Responsible Public Procurement.” The objective was to embed the principles behind responsible public procurement in everyday practice in a context where they had been used rather sporadically and by only a few public contracting authorities. In the Czech Republic, responsible public procurement is regulated according to European legislation (EU Directives 2014/23, 24 and 25) and interconnects the economic dimension with environmental, social and broad societal considerations. The project, which can be used also to support the development of social enterprises, ran from 2016 to 2020 and was co-funded by the European Social Fund.
The project aimed to promote and further develop responsible public procurement given the persistence of an approach to public procurement that focused primarily on price. To this end, it created a long-term expert platform (https://www.sovz.cz/en/) that offers advice and support to contracting authorities and private actors, including social enterprises, on the implementation of responsible public procurement from a legal, analytical and methodological perspective. The platform also provides informative materials in the form of methodological guides, examples of good practices, sample texts and presentation of foreign experiences, which were produced during the course of the project, along with a collection of research articles. In addition, the platform informed about the educational events for the exchange of experience (e.g. workshops, conferences, schools) available for both contracting authorities and private actors interested in engaging in responsible public procurement, including social enterprises.
Supporting the participation of social enterprises in public procurement was one of the focus areas of the project. In this regard, a variety of activities were carried out to explain what social enterprises are and what they do, what are the benefits of involving them in public procurement, and what are the ways in which their participation in public procurement can be supported (reserved contracts; social clauses; direct award of small-scale contracts; and other measures including reducing administrative burdens, dividing contracts into smaller parts and encouraging social enterprises to act as subcontractors).
For example, the project produced the guide “Socially Responsible Public Procurement and Social Enterprises” and created a page on the platform specifically dedicated to supporting the participation of social enterprises in public procurement. The project also produced a collection of case studies of social enterprises involved in public procurement as well as templates for tender documents aimed at supporting these actors. In addition, an 800-page catalogue listing existing social enterprises was prepared for public institutions and companies interested in purchasing products and services from them. At the same time, the project team focussed on this topic in capacity-building events for contracting authorities and participated in social enterprises’ events where they presented successful practices.
An evaluation study was conducted at the end of the project. The results show that the project contributed to the spread of the concept of responsible public procurement among both contracting authorities and the general public, and to its introduction into practice. Positive impacts were recorded in relation to a number of barriers that had hitherto hindered the uptake of responsible public procurement in the country, such as the lack of resources, data, training opportunities and tailored support for the actors interested in this practice. But it also partially increased the low awareness and understanding of the concept, grew the motivation around the practice, and partially reduced the hesitation of contracting authorities to implement it. It also had an impact on the development of the concept, fostering a shift in how it is perceived, from a narrow sense (limited to environmentally friendly solution or employment support) to a wide range of opportunities.
Although there is no specific information on the impact of the project on the participation of social enterprises in public procurement, we can assume that it was beneficial, especially considering the wide range of activities put in place to support them. The survey conducted among the public authorities and the private actors whose contacts were obtained during the project implementation shows the project areas in which they more often applied the principles of responsible public procurement. Twenty-three percent of the respondents mentioned the area “promoting access to public procurement by social enterprises,” while 57% mentioned the area “promoting employment opportunities for disadvantaged people.” Since 2020, project activities have been followed-up by the project “Responsible Approach to Public Procurement - Strategic Public Procurement,” which will run until June 2023.
- https://www.sovz.cz/en/
- https://sovz.cz/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2018_report-on-responsible-public-procurement-in-the-czech-republic.pdf
- MoLSA (2018). Support for social enterprises through public procurement. https://sovz.cz/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/sovz_publikace_socpodniky_web.pdf
- MoLSA (2020). Responsible public procurement catalogue of social enterprises. https://sovz.cz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/katalog-socialnich-podniku_web.pdf
- MoLSA (2020). Analysis of the state of the participants. https://sovz.cz/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/analyza-ciloveho-stavu-cs.pdf