Oxfam has urged UK prime minister Gordon Brown to create a more ‘enabling environment for ethical trade’ in public procurement.
The UK public sector spends £125billion ($250bn) annually on goods and
services, including £13bn on medical supplies for the National Health
Service. Oxfam claims many of these are sourced from emerging economies
under poor working conditions.
However, it points out that official UK procurement guidelines prevent
public sector bodies from applying ethical principles, so that the NHS
purchasing agency, for instance, is not allowed to consider child
labour when selecting suppliers.
The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a UK-based alliance of retailers,
trade unions and non-governmental organizations, is backing Oxfam’s
demands. It says the government has an unduly ‘conservative
interpretation’ of the European Union’s procurement directive, so that
public sector buyers focus almost exclusively on value for money. ‘The
presence of child labour or bonded labour in the production of publicly
procured goods is deemed not to affect the intrinsic value of the
product and is therefore not relevant,’ said ETI director Dan Rees.
He added: ‘The private sector is used to the government preaching to
them about sustainability. It’s now time for the government to catch up
with the private sector on ethical sourcing.’
The Sustainable Procurement Task Force established by Brown’s
predecessor Tony Blair recommended last year that ministers introduce a
sustainable procurement plan by 2009 covering energy, food, and some
other goods and services.
Rees claimed that the UK is ‘completely out of step with other EU
member states’. France is currently introducing sustainable development
criteria in public procurement contracts. In Belgium contracting
authorities can require suppliers of services, works and goods to
comply with core ILO conventions in the country of production.
