NL – Public Procurement, 2nd NAP

Pillar I

Central government procurement and private-sector instruments

In relation to Pillar 1, the NBA appraisal notes that improved policy coherence can bolster government efforts on business and human rights. The government is looking for possible ways of aligning both central government procurement and grants frameworks for the business community with RBC duties and responsibilities.

Government procurement

“The government wants its procurement practices to set an example and contribute to the application of RBC by businesses. Government procurement totalled approximately €16 billion in 2021. The government’s new central government procurement strategy, ‘Procurement with Impact’ presented in 2019, takes sustainable, social and innovative procurement as its new point of departure. In 2021 the government presented its new National Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) for 2021-2025 aiming to encourage compliance by contracting authorities, including central government agencies.

The government’s central procurement strategy includes the International Social Conditions (ISCs). These have applied to all EU contract award procedures since 2017 and aim to establish more sustainable international supply chains by preventing or responding to risks related to working conditions, human rights and the environment. The ISCs are one of the contractual conditions obliging contractors to apply due diligence.

Lessons can be learned from the various studies and evaluations which have taken place since the introduction of the current ISC policy framework in 2017. The government has promised to improve the application of ISC in its central procurement process partly based on these lessons. On 13 June 2022 the government published an ISC implementation plan to meet this commitment. This document describes the steps that will be taken to improve the implementation of international procurement conditions.

The ISC Implementation Plan includes three lines of action:

LINE OF ACTION 1: Improve implementation of the current ISC policy framework

The government’s drive to improve the current ISC policy framework will focus on strengthening contract management in relation to international social conditions. Focusing on improving knowledge and knowledge sharing and developing practical tools will better enable stakeholders to apply and follow up on contractual requirements, including providing in a timely manner a risk analysis, an improvement plan and a publicly available annual report. One example of this is the ISC support centre set up by the PIANOo Public Procurement Expertise Centre. The implementation of the ISC policy is moreover guaranteed in the individual plans of the eight risk categories. Finally, monitoring of the application and follow-up of ISC policy will be improved, among other things by enhancing coherence between the various instruments and by identifying and implementing clear and actionable Key Performance Indictors (KPIs) in already existing instruments.

LINE OF ACTION 2: Expand the application of ISCs

In addition to the compulsory application of international social conditions in public procurement contracts above the European threshold, the government also encourages the voluntary application of ISCs in other procurement processes. BZ, BZK and SZW will take a leading role in the application of ISC policy in all public procurement, both generic and specific. Alongside actions aimed at stimulating the voluntary application of international social conditions, the government plans to carry out two studies into the feasibility and desirability of an expansion of the ISC policy framework. Finally, it will initiate campaigns to inform various actors about compulsory and voluntary application of ISCs in central government public procurement.

LINE OF ACTION 3: Improve policy coherence

This includes both administrative and substantive improvements. For example, central government website content should be consistent in its message about legislation and procurement policy. Other points of focus include how ISC procurement policy relates to the approach set out in the UNGPs and to due diligence policy as set out in the OECD Guidelines. Existing documents on ISC policy such as guidelines and specifications will, where possible, be brought in line with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UNGPs. Furthermore, subnational authorities will be encouraged to apply ISCs via buyer groups in which public and private contracting authorities collaborate on a shared vision and strategy to improve the sustainability of a specific product category.

Although the ISC implementation plan relates specifically to central government public procurement, instruments promoting the application of ISCs will be made broadly available. This will stimulate the application of ISCs by subnational authorities and ensure that the implementation agenda is consistent with the ambitions formulated in the National Plan on Sustainable Public Procurement for 2021-2025. Progress on the ISC implementation plan will be noted each year in the Central Government Operational Management Annual Report.

Under the National Plan on Sustainable Public Procurement, central government commits to maintaining the SPP desk at the PIANOo Public Procurement Expertise Centre, to maintaining and developing the SPP criteria tool, to establishing a special ISC Procurement Academy and to providing access to an SPP self-evaluation tool to help procurement services implement and monitor sustainable procurement. It has also published a guide to monitoring and assuring SPP. The government is drawing up a new SPP Manifesto for 2022-2025 to encourage sustainable commissioning and procurement, including ISCs, by government bodies and other parties. The buyer groups mentioned above also often apply ISCs.

A human rights platform for municipalities was set up in 2021 as a result of the National Action Plan on Human Rights. The platform enables municipalities to include business and human rights considerations in their procurement processes.” PP. 31, 33.

ACTION POINTS PILLAR 1	Aim	Responsible party	Timeline
Public Procurement
Implement ISCs in the renewed SPP Manifesto 2022-2025	Strengthen implementation of ISCs	I&W (on behalf of SPP ministries)	Start in spring of 2022, continuing until 2025
Measure impact of SPP at all levels of Dutch government	SPP impact monitor	National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), commissioned by I&W, on behalf of other SPP ministries as well	Biennial monitor.

p. 34