Integrating Responsible Business Conduct in Public Procurement

Denmark

1. Policy

Environment

In 2013, the Danish government implemented a strategy called Strategy for Intelligent Public Procurement, which contains guidelines to promote sustainability in public procurement. Principle 6 “Green conversion” focuses on green public procurement, and encourages contracting authorities to transition towards greener procurement options.

Currently, the Danish Government is preparing a new strategy on green public procurement.

Human rights, people with disabilities and long-term unemployed people

The Strategy for Intelligent Public Procurement contains guidelines for the promotion of human rights in public procurement procedures.

Labour rights

Denmark has a Circular regarding labour clauses in public contracts, which aligns with all provisions of ILO Convention №. 94, and requires public procurement authorities to include contract clauses on regular wages.

Integrity

The Public Procurement Act contains measures to fight bribery, anti-competition, among others. This act also provides guidelines and measures for bribery.

Strategic frameworks

• In 2018, the Danish Government launched a strategy on circular economy. This strategy provides analysis on the environmental and economic effects of circular procurement, containing several public procurement measures, such as:

  • Tools to make Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) / Life Cycle Cost (LCC) calculations;

  • The Green Public Procurement Partnership and Forum for Sustainable Procurement;

  • The Tender Portal for Responsible Procurement regarding circular procurement and the reinforcement of procurer competences; and

  • The Mobile Task Force of Green Public Procurement, to include counselling on circular procurement for the supplier side.

2. Implementation

Pre-tender phase

• When carrying out market analysis for high-risk areas such as facility management (guards and cleaning services), the Danish CPB, the Agency for Public Finance and Management, usually focuses on labour rights considerations such as compliance with collective agreements, minimum wages, etc.

Tender phase

• According to Principle 6 “Green conversion” of the Strategy for Intelligent Public Procurement, green products and environmental technology solutions for public tenders must be taken into account in the tender phase. The strategy aims at reducing resource consumption and climate and environmental impacts.

• According to the Danish Act on Public Procurement (2016), a public purchaser may exclude tenderers that do not observe environmental, social or labour requirements.

• The Danish Agency for Public Finance and Management developed several voluntary grounds for exclusion from tenders, targeting the integrity of their suppliers.

3. Good Practices

• The Tender Portal for Responsible Procurement (Den Ansvarlige Indkøber) contains guidelines, manuals and best practice on considerations relating to the environment, human and labour rights, other social aspects and integrity in public procurement procedures.

• The Danish Agency for Public Finance and Management bases their due diligence guidelines on the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. These due diligence guidelines may include a policy describing the supplier’s commitment to responsible management of the supply chain, risk analysis of the supply chain, implementation of the policy and risk as well as reports on the implementation and its outcomes.

• The implementation of the Partnership of Green Public Procurement promotes green public procurement through common goals and policies.

• The Forum of Sustainable Procurement promotes green and responsible procurement through a set of guidelines, tools and networks. In 2019, the Forum launched a guide on how to support SDGs throughout the public procurement procedure.