Abstract
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.
Highlights
A dopted in 2011, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs),1 represent a shift in perspective on human rights responsibilities: the UNGPs introduced the business responsibility to respect human rights and compelled states to deliver on their obligations to protect human rights from abuses in the private sector
The paper analyses relevant primary and secondary sources in the fields of business and human rights, governance, and economics and organizes the discussion as follows: section 2 discusses the links between public procurement and human rights; section 3 analyses the role of corruption in general and political favouritism in particular within public procurement; section 4 outlines the risks, impacts, and obstructive effects of political favouritist schemes for individual human rights and the human rights approach to the public procurement governance; section 5 concludes and suggests directions for further research
Procurement systems remain resistant to increasing pressures from international organizations and frameworks, such as the UNGPs
Summary
A dopted in 2011, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), represent a shift in perspective on human rights responsibilities: the UNGPs introduced the business responsibility to respect human rights and compelled states to deliver on their obligations to protect human rights from abuses in the private sector. Political favouritism entails the prioritization of private gains over public interests in public procurement and, if it takes a systemic form, it can erode public trust in government institutions and, regardless of legal consequences, damage companies’ social license to operate It erases the traditional public-private divide and creates opportunities for corporate capture.. The paper analyses relevant primary and secondary sources in the fields of business and human rights, governance, and economics and organizes the discussion as follows: section 2 discusses the links between public procurement and human rights; section 3 analyses the role of corruption in general and political favouritism in particular within public procurement; section 4 outlines the risks, impacts, and obstructive effects of political favouritist schemes for individual human rights and the human rights approach to the public procurement governance; section 5 concludes and suggests directions for further research
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