The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) with the help of the project titled “Promoting the Implementation and Development of Socially Responsible Public Procurement” has applied socially responsible public procurement in practice. Working closely with other contracting authorities both in the Czech Republic and abroad, it continues to develop the concept and searches for new opportunities to use it
MoLSA has been implementing the project since March 2016 with the aim to promote the use and development of responsible public procurement. The objective is to embed the principles behind responsible public procurement in everyday practice and thus ensure public funds are spent more efficiently, particularly with respect to needs concerning employment, social inclusion, and sustainability as such whenever necessary, i.e., including impact on the environment.
The project is to create a long term consultation and expert platform to develop the concept of responsible public procurement and offers advice and consultations in the area of applying responsible public procurement, and acts as a source of information, examples of good practice, sample texts, activities supporting exchanging and gaining experience, etc. Available is a team of experts in responsible public procurement, law, employment, social inclusion, sustainability, and other related areas. In addition to short-term collaboration with contracting authorities on individual issues related to socially responsible public procurement, the project opens opportunities for setting up long-term collaboration between the MoLSA and the contracting authority. At the beginning of this collaboration, the contracting authority’s objective and needs to be met in the area of responsible public procurement through the use of the activities above are defined.
Other project activities include:
GUIDANCE MATERIALS
- Preparation of methodologies to be used by contracting authorities and suppliers. These methodologies aim to inform the target group about existing options for responsible public procurement (including sample texts). On the one hand, they provide information as to how to be responsible in awarding public contracts, and, on the other, how suppliers may get ready for them and succeed.
- Further, the project attempts to make use of articles on socially responsible public procurement published in journals targeting experts and small contracting authorities (e.g., municipalities), to increase awareness of responsible public procurement and dispel fears contractors may have of such a procedure. Articles here (CZ)
TRAINING EVENTS
- In the field of responsible procurement, we organise professional events and training courses tailored to the needs of contracting authorities in the Czech Republic. At regular intervals, we also run several day training events called “schools” for advanced students.
- The project also includes logistics of conferences, expert seminars, workshops and trade fairs such as:
- 2019 – A conference “Social Benefits of Public Procurement“
- 2019 – A conference “Opportunities for Responsible Public Procurement in the Construction Sector“
- 2019 – Workshops on “ISO 20400 – Sustainable Procurement – Basic and Advanced Course” with Action Sustainability
- 2018 – A workshop on “ISO 20400 – Sustainable Procurement” with Helen Carter and Alex Giles from Action Sustainability
- 2017 – An international workshop on “Communication between Contracting Authorities and Suppliers“
- 2017 – A Stuart Crains workshop on “Socially Responsible Public Procurement for Construction Work and Direct Payments”
- Project annual conferences:
- 2019 – A conference Responsible Procurement – A Strategic Approach to Public Procurement
- 2018 – A conference on responsible public procurement – Social Responsibility and Quality in Public Procurement
- 2017 – A conference on responsible public procurement – A Strategic Approach to Public Procurement
- 2016 – A conference on responsible public procurement – New Opportunities
ECOPROCURA 2018: CERTIFICATE OF MERIT FOR MoLSA
The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, or more precisely the Implementation and Development of Socially Responsible Public Procurement Project was given the PROCURA+ award in the category titled Procurement Initiative of the Year. Even though the highest award in this category was finally given to the City of Barcelona, we were pleased to be placed among the last four finalists. In addition, we received the certificate of merit at the EcoProcura conference.