Socially responsible public
procurement
& public-social partnership
Mikołaj Gurdała, December 2011, Milan
Structure of presentation
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Part 1a: Basic information about the strand:
it's background, methodology and outputs from
surveys and desk research;
Part 1b: SWOT analysis as practical background
to the final recommendations;
Part 1c: recommendations of the strand as main
product and output.
Part 2: recommendations & mainstreaming
+ connection with the other strands
Part 1a
Thematic strand
of SRPP and PSP
The aim of the strand
to examine the practice of using public-social
partnership in different EU member states and its
impact on social economy development.
to check how social clauses are used by member
states, how member states include social
enterprises into public procurement process
to gather some good practices in both fields, that
could be disseminated among EU institutions, EU
member states, policy making agencies, ESF MA’s
and social economy organizations
Methodology
main definitions: public-social partnership,
social clauses, strategic approach in public
procurement
tools: questionnaires and desk research,
SWOT analysis
outputs and results: good practices,
practical tools
Analysis and Products
September 2010 - preparation of a questionnaire
October/December 2010 – collecting and analysing questionnaires
December 2010/February 2011 – comparative analysis => final report
(report for internal use = pre-product)
March 2011 – presentation and discussion at BFSE Warsaw seminar
April/August 2011 - following analysis (In the meantime, response to
the European Commission`s consultation on the modernisation of EU
public procurement policy = product)
September 2011 - peer-review meeting (SWOT analysis of good
practices = product)
October/December 2011 – (recommendations = product)
Outputs 1
difficult documentation to measure and compare
close connection between PSP and social clauses
PSP vs. PPP (Anglo saxon and continental approaches,
Italian experience)
Where does “the third sector” end?
In other words: accepted social economy definition may
lead to different approaches, e.g. Scandinavian “social
enterprise status” or wide perspective of UK’s attitude
towards social and economic mixture of ngo’s.
Outputs 2
Why do we need to cooperate? - difficulties on both sides
of public procurement: public buyers and bidders
good practices - tools, programmes, trainings, promotion,
etc.
strategic approach (holistic approach to public
procurement including its three main phases: pre-tender,
tender proceedings, award and execution of the contract
continuation of analysis on practices: “actions plans”
(Belgium), “piani di zona” (Italy) and “Eight rules of good
commissioning” (UK)
Background for recommendations &
general trends
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Directive 2004/17/EC & Directive 2004/18/EC
Europe 2020 Strategy
“GREEN PAPER on the modernisation of EU public
procurement policy. Towards a more efficient
European Procurement Market” (2011) including
social actors` views (PASE report 2011)
“Buying Social” Guide (2010)
Social Business Initiative (2011)
Background for recommendations &
general trends
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To a certain extent: less focus on administrative issues and
more on practice of social clauses implementation
need to improve officers` knowledge about social economy
and social innovation given by SRPP (social added value, lower
costs for community in the long term)
encouraging public authorities and social stakeholders to
cooperate in a partnership formula
need to increase public awareness about the value of “social
buying”, giving reliable evidence on social impact
need to watch carefully how local communites could be more
resist to economic crisis by involving social economy in solving
social problems and exclusion (sustainable approach)
Background for recommendations
- strand perspective
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former strand analysis and good practices from
partner countries - identification of products/outputs
useful for the strand, BFSE network and its target
groups
discussions and contributions during project events
(seminar/ peer review) gave other perspective to the
strand findings - e.g. presenations by Polish officers
and social economy enterprises on how hard is to
implement SRPP and PSP in reality
Part 1b
SWOT analysis
(product)
SWOT Analysis
to examine the strenghts and weeknesses of good practices in the
field of PSP and SRPP
to check how social clauses are used by member states, how they
include social enterprises
to bring analysis about possible negative and positive trends in
SRPP, especially social clauses
to open the discussion, how PSP and SRPP should be implemented
into EU- and national levels
Strenghts - “piani di zona”
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Broad consultation process always results in partnerships making
profitable and effective decisions;
„Piani di zona“ is not only a tool for particular area covering certain
community, but it enables groups of communities to co-operate for
better analysis of local problems and find more effective solutions;
„Piani di zona“ have a strong reference to the third sector
organizations (in this case social cooperatives may play an active role).
But also citizens` organization have a lot to say in the whole process;
„Piani di zona“ may use various approaches in order to reach forseen
goals. This contains also organization of tenders with social clauses
dedicated for social cooperatives.
Strenghts - “action plans”
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Each „action plan“ is strongly connected with national polices which makes it
more general and sustainable tool;
„Action plans“ refer to putting social considerations into public procurement,
which enables the easier implementation of social clauses in Belgium;
In economical terms, „action plans“ are covering mainly all sectors, which
makes them strong and effective policy-making tool;
"Action plans"are drafted both at the federal and regional level and even
a federal one has a strong input from regional experience, mainly by Flemish
authorities
"Action plans" refer to sustainable procurement in general, including e.g.
"green clauses" and fair trade labelling for foods and products, which makes
them more complex and universal tools adaptable for implementing socioeconomic values of modern societies. (EC guidelines from „Buying social guide”)
Weaknesses
“piani di zona”, “action plans”
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„Piani di zona“ is a locally-oriented initiative, which may lead to losing
some more general development aspects and looking very narrowly at
the particular community aspects;
„Action plans“ are not so detailed. They are mainly dedicated to whole
sector not a single social-economic problem like „piani di zona“;
Social economy entities are involved in both practices but they are not
main actors or receivers of the actions;
Both „piani di zona“ and „action plans“ are dedicated to either certain
sectors or socio- economic problems and communities set at a
particular time framework.
Other good practices
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Eight principles of commissioning services at tender (UK): use of expertise
of social economy organizations; need for assessment, evaluation,
performance planning and review of the service; mapping of potential
suppliers of resources including their operational ability; to ensure
transparent and fair process concluding contracts with the appropriate level
of risk.
Criteria for sustainable public procurement (Belgium) must comply with
generally applicable national law and Community law, and in particular:
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non-discrimination: the share of bidders from other countries, states
can not be blocked or hindered by national regulations
principle of equality: all bidders have the right to an impartial
assessment and equal opportunities to make an offer based on the
principle of competition.
transparency rule: the action of a public body must be
logical,reasonable and transparent.
Opportunities for PSP and SRPP
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There are a few models for measuring value of using social clauses (also social
added value) available or under construction and sets of guidelines for public
procurers – e.g. "Eight principles of commissioning services at tender"
There are symptoms of treating a tender as a process, where all steps and impacts
are being taken into account (UK, Sweden, Flanders, Italy);
Preparing a toolkit for administration at national level illustrating in practice how to
implement social clauses into different tenders - such a toolkit must include an
example of applying social clauses via complete tender documentation accepted by
national or regional public procurement office and control bodies in order to make
public procures and bidders feel secure with their usage.
SRPP may work not only at local level, where cooperation between social economy
and public bodies escapes some barriers and stereotypes.
Threats for PSP and SRPP
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Lack of knowledge on the part of public procurers, decision makers
and social economy entities about possibility for using PSP&SRPP;
Lack of innovation
Social clauses are treated as a tools themselves without seeing a
wider perspective for the devlopment of social economy and still
existing legislative barriers for officers, especially at the regional and
local level;
Public bodies will not be interested in application of social clauses, when
procedures are difficult and risky for them, especially in times of economic
crisis while cutting down the administrative costs;
Legislative initiatives tending to add another duties to public procurers
without any reasonable analysis of the real impact of using social clauses
Part 1c
recommendations
(main product)
Recommendations –
target groups
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EU level - DG Market, DG Employment, DG Regio, DG
Enterprise; Eurpean Parlament, Committee of Regions,
EU-social economy organizations
National level - ministries, ESF MA’s
Regional level - governments, ESF MA’s
Policy makers - agencies, institutions
Local level - communities, social enterprises, private
business
Recommendations 1
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public procurement as socially responsible tool may by used to achieve also
other goals then only social inclusion - regional and local level
social clauses cannot be seen as separated tool to solve problems; only
strategic approach towards public procurement makes it really effective - all
levels
social clauses must be clarified by providing examples (toolkits, guides) - EU
and national level, policy makers
social accounting should be taken into considearions as baseline for
procurement processes, apart from life-cycle costs - national, regional and
local level, policy makers, EU - to consider
social innovation as tool to incubate and exchange good practices - national
and Regional level
there is still unused capacity for PSP - it should be obligatory for the ESF
project’s (e.g. EQUAL) - national, regional level
Recommendations 2
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social clauses usage has to be measured not only at quantative level,
but also in qualitative way in order to collect good examples - national,
regional and local level, policy makers, EU - to consider
if contracting for social economy enterpries raises fast below EU
thresehold, what not to make reservations or “joined-in” contracts for
those entities - over 193.000 euro for national level ; over 125.000 euro
for regional and local level
education, education, education - there is no progres in this field
without well educated and proffesional officers - regional and local
level + policy makers including controlling agencies
let the social enterprises become, who they are; strong competition
with private business may press them to forget about social inspiration
of their activity, pursuing them to be more “business-thinking” then this
is needed - policy makers, local level
Recommendations 3
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creation and development of databases gathering information about
the social clauses usage and its impact - national, regional and local
level, policy makers, EU - to consider
simplify the law or deregulate it in the field of social clauses, if possible EU and national level
link education and promotion with “success stories” and practical tools;
less theoretic seminars for officers, more bringing “real life” into
perspective of public procurement - national and regional level, policy
makers
SRPP sould be treated as an innovation for which the officers receive a
reward not a penalty for implementing the law, which is not clear and in
common use - regional and local level + policy makers including
controlling agencies
Recommendations
- links with other strands
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there is no SRPP when social enterprises are weak market players proffesional & financial support - link with financial instruments & social
added value
some social enterprises are not able to be competitive - let’s enable them
to be involved in SSGI or conract them in easier way by lowering the
administration issues in providing contracts
social enterprieses have to play specific role - we need measure the
whole impact of its activity - link with social added value
social economy is something more then social enterprise - we have see
the EU member states differences in approach towards different types of
social economy (cooperatives, firm, assocations, ngo, etc.) and this
business may be runned – link with social franchising
Part 2
mainstreaming
Mainstreaming
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the main objective is to show the strategic
perspective of public procurement AWARNESS AND KNOWLEDGE
to encourage public institutions and social
economy to cooperate not only in contracts,
but mainly by partnerships - PROCESSES
the ideas, practical tools and guides may be
presented at different levels - PRODUCTS
Mainstreaming 2
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consultation process should be always the initial part of preparation of
any action involving partners - “bottom-up” meetings, focus groups at
local and regional level; also proffesional expert panels for policy
makers and EU-institutions
spreading the idea of SRPP by open access to databases including
information about calls, tenders and contracts: if others did, we can also
use social clauses - presenations and mainstreaming via Internet
(Facebook, Twitter)
when preseting the social clauses, we need to involve people’s awarness
in social buying and corporate social responsibilty - media relations, TV,
radio and Internet campaigns, local and regional events (e.g. social
economy exhibitions connected with local products and brands)
Mainstreaming 3
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policy making and law perspective has to be done at EU and national
level - conferences, seminars, consultation events (also online)
education activities should be reserved for regional and local level and
policy making institutions - training and if possible study visit to social
economy enterprises
ESF MA’s need to have more authonomy in involving PSP and SRPP into
call for proposals - more freedom in consultation, preparation of calls;
“open-minded” control and strategic planning departments
idea of CSR may be significant support for involving business into
strategic approach in public procurement - presenations for/at
business clubs, chambers of commerce, other network for private
enterpreneurs
Thank You
for Your attention