Human rights and public procurement of goods and services

2020 ◽  
pp. 245-267
Author(s):  
Claire Methven O’Brien ◽  
Olga Martin-Ortega
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Goods And Services

scholarly journals Corrupt from the Head Down: Human Rights Impacts of Political Favouritism in Public Procurement

2021 ◽  
pp. 205-223
Author(s):  
Nika Arevadze
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
The State ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Systemic Analysis ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
Novel Approach

Public procurement represents a significant part of the global economy and influencesthe nature and quality of public goods and services. Consequently, it has substantial direct and indirectlinks with the human rights of a wide array of rightsholders. However, public procurement systemsrarely reflect these links and remain resistant to calls on human rights integration from internationalorganizations and academic scholarship. While this divergence is often discussed, the root governance issues that create the gap between public procurement and human rights and contribute to the lackof progress remain relatively unexplored. This paper investigates a prevalent governance issue inpublic procurement – political favouritist corruption schemes – and their role in the paradoxical lackof progress in aligning public procurement systems with human rights requirements. Through theanalysis of primary and secondary sources, the paper demonstrates the links between such corruptpractices and prevalent human rights issues in public procurement. It argues that by underminingpublic procurement systems, political favouritism jeopardizes primary economic and secondarysocial objectives of procurement and brings about adverse human rights impacts. These impactsharm civil and political, as well as economic, social and cultural human rights in national contextsand obstruct the development at large. Moreover, this corrupt arrangement represents a roadblockfor promoting human rights integration in public procurement and, hence, hampers the progressfor the novel approach of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in general, andits provisions concerning the state-business nexus in particular. The paper concludes by outliningthe need for further interdisciplinary and empirical research which will explore this issue throughthe lens of business and human rights, and offer a systemic analysis of root causes, the state of playand potential solutions.

scholarly journals Extraterritoriality of EU law and human rights after Lisbon: The case of trade and public procurement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Velluti ◽  
Vassilis P. Tzevelekos
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Eu

The paper introduces the theme and topics of this Special Issue on the extraterritoriality of EU law and human rights in the fields of trade and public procurement since the entry into force of the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon. It briefly explores the meaning of extraterritoriality in international (human rights) law and the EU legal order highlighting the complexity of such notion in both legal systems. In so doing, it provides the context and focus of analysis of the collection of papers that make up this Special Issue, which addresses a number of topical questions concerning the extraterritorial conduct of the EU, as well as the extraterritorial effects of EU law in those specific fields, from the perspective of human rights.

scholarly journals Corporate social responsibility and protection of workers’ human rights: the case of Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-270
Author(s):  
Achim Seifert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
German Law ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

The following Article analyzes recent developments of German law regarding CSR and the protection of human rights in the production sites of foreign subsidiaries and suppliers of German companies. It gives a brief overview on the National Action Plan of the Federal Government, adopted in 2016, analyzes possibilities of a direct enforcement of human rights violations before German courts and gives a survey on some relevant instruments German law uses to promote the respect of human rights by German companies (e.g. CSR transparency and public procurement law). Finally, the current debate on the adoption of a “Supply Chains Act” is briefly assessed. The author argues that the CSR debate in Germany has reached a crossroad with the Federal Government’s initiative for a “Supply Chains Act” since such Act would probably establish a supply chain due diligence and also a delictual liability of German companies for human rights violations caused by a non-compliance with its statutory duties to control its supply chain. However, the outcome of this ongoing debate still is unclear.

scholarly journals The importance of evaluation of economic determinants in public procurement processes in Slovakia in 2010–2016

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Tkacova ◽  
Beata Gavurova ◽  
Jakub Danko ◽  
Martin Cepel
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Limit Orders ◽  
Survey Sample ◽  
The Impact

Research background: Public procurement is designed to efficiently spend public sector financial resources. This should lead to savings in public funds. Domestic and foreign studies point to the fact that sufficient competition on the supply side is the condition for achieving those savings. Slovakia currently belongs to a group of countries with low competition on the supply side of the tender. Every year, about 10,000 tenders will be made in Slovakia for 5 billion Eur. However, contracting authorities have difficulty with establishing the estimated contract value and defining non-discriminatory criteria. On the other hand, contractors lack the expertise to prepare tenders, specifications are often tailored to specific bidders or products, and the price criterion has a negative impact on the quality of the goods and services purchased. Purpose of the article: The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of selected efficiency determinants on savings in public procurement in Slovakia in 2010–2016. The number of bids, the subcontractor's participation, the narrower competition and the impact of the narrower competition and the expected price on the number of bids have been examined. Methods: The survey sample consisted of 800 randomly selected public procurement con-tracts from different sectors in 2010–2016. The contracts were split on the basis of the median estimate of the above-limit (409 contracts) and below-limit (391 contracts) contracts; the divestment value was the estimated price of 400,000 Euro (without the tax). Findings & Value added: The number of offers positively influences the creation of savings in public procurement, an average of 5-6%. The impact of a narrow competition was significant, which led to a decrease in savings of 3-4% compared to the open competition if the sample was 800 contracts and over 400,000 Euro (without the tax). For below-limit orders, this determinant was shown to be statistically insignificant. The size of the contract did not affect the number of successful candidates. Also, the negative impact of narrower competition on the number of tenders was demonstrated. These findings are in line with the presented research studies. In the future, we plan to perform sectoral analyses to verify the validity of the hypotheses under review based on the results of our research.

Classification of Digital Technologies in the Sphere of Public Procurement and corporate Readiness for Their Implementation

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-33
Author(s):  
M. Umnova ◽  
A. Kokoreva ◽  
O. Ikonnikov
Keyword(s):  
Public Procurement ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Government Procurement ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Business World ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
The Internet Of Things

The digitalization of public procurement is a popular topic of discussion in both the scientific and business world. Currently, government procurement of goods and services in Russia does not use the full potential of digital technologies and is at the stage of electronization and automation. Technologies such as big data analytics, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and additive manufacturing are not yet widely used. This article examines this problem from two sides. First, the existing and promising digital technologies of public procurement are studied, their classification is given by complexity, level of application and functions. The directions for the development of digital technologies are discussed using examples in Russian and foreign practice. Secondly, attention is also paid to the problem of organizations' readiness for digital transformation in technological and organizational aspects, taking into account the influence of environmental factors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document