What is disability inclusive public procurement policy?
Disability inclusive public procurement can be summarised as follows: choosing and rewarding contractors that employ persons with disabilities (preferential contracting); clear procurement criteria that rewards accessibility and universal design; and procurement practices for care and support services that are compliant with the provisions of the CRPD.
Disability-inclusive public procurement can generally be categorized into two types: preferential contracting and procurement to promote accessibility.
Preferential contracting aims to enhance the economic and social empowerment of persons with disabilities by awarding contracts to business entities or civil entities that hire persons with disabilities or are run by them or NGOs for person with disabilities, that meet certain criteria. On the other hand.
Procurement to promote accessibility incorporates accessibility and/or universal design standards into the bidding criteria when selecting the most appropriate supplier.
How can disability-inclusive procurement policies achieve accessibility?
"It is unacceptable to use public funds to create or perpetuate the inequality that inevitably results from inaccessible services and facilities." Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities General Comment No. 2 (2014)
Public procurement refers to the process by which public authorities (procurers) purchase work, goods or services from an external contractor (supplier) which they have selected for this purpose’. Procured goods and services can include equipment (i.e., computers and furniture), services (i.e., in schools, hospitals, ministries), public transport, built environment, infrastructure public works, urban planning, water supplies and waste treatment.
Public procurement is a considerable economic activity. For developing countries, public procurement amounts to an average of 15 to 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and up to 50 per cent or more of government expenditure.
If publicly procured goods and services are universal design-based or accessible, the purchasing power of governments can serve as an effective leverage to promote universal design-based society with the involvement of both public and private sectors. As the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states, it is unacceptable to use public funds to create or perpetuate the inequality that inevitably results from inaccessible services and facilities. This supports a procurement incorporating accessibility perspective.
Countries like South Africa have maintained effective governance by enforcing laws which requires government entities implementing procurement policies to preference categories of people disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act provided a framework for implementing Constitutional section 217. The Act provides a system to evaluate the tender process with a goal to contract persons, or categories of persons historically disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the basis of race, gender or disability.
Speaking of effective governance, United Kingdom Public procurement complies with relevant principles of EU treaties. The 2006 Public Contracts Regulations and 2006 utilities Contract Regulation implement the EU procurement and utilities directives and have a provision for reserving contracts for supported businesses, factories or employment programs. Public authorities may reserve the right to participate in public contract award procedures. Supported employment programs, factory or businesses are establishments or services “where more than 50% of the workers are disabled persons who because of the nature or severity of their disability are unable to take up work in the open labour market.” Supported employment programs are the same as ‘sheltered employment programs’ under the EU Directives.
Contracting authorities are required to indicate in the Official Journal of the European Union Contract Notice when a contract is “reserved for sheltered workshops under Article 19 of the Directive”: Before taking the decision to reserve a contract, contracting authorities should consult with the market to establish whether or not supported factories and businesses will be able to meet their requirements and provide value for money.
How and why disability-inclusive procurement policy works to promote accessibility?
The public procurement process generally consists of six key phases: firstly, to identify accessibility needs of the procurer; secondly, call for tenders; thirdly, the evaluation of tenders; fourthly, the selection of contracts, followed by the awarding of contracts and lastly, the management of procurement contracts.
A Disability-inclusive public procurement policy would include compliance with a technical accessibility standard as part of criteria for suppliers to be considered in bidding. Therefore, when soliciting suppliers to apply for bidding for a certain product, a government, first and foremost has to have technical standards in compliance with international standards such as then a government entity conducting procurement will have to inform that requirement to potential suppliers. Then, typically, suppliers wanting to participate in bidding are required to submit the written evidence that their product or service is accessible. The government entity which solicited tenders is required to check the product or service accessibility compliance through review. Technical standards used as criterion should be nationally recognized and compatible with international standards. A contract will generally be awarded to the most competitive supplier in accordance with their compliance with relevant procurement criteria, including fulfilment of accessibility standards. Generally, a disability-inclusive public procurement policy defines a scope of products and services this accessibility criterion is applied to.
Implementation of disability-inclusive public procurement policies could create an upward spiral of market-driven spread of accessible goods and services. First, incorporating universal design-based accessibility within public procurement, creates an incentive for suppliers to increase the production of accessible goods and services.
Then, the increased supply can lead to a ripple-on effect, providing a broader range of accessible goods and services available to consumers with diverse needs in the domestic market first, and later international markets as importing and exporting of accessible goods and services become more prevalent. As the availability of accessible goods and services becomes more widespread, healthy competition in the market ensues, thus leading to products and services that are more affordable, and the potential for the quality of universal design-based accessibility to improve. If more universal design-based accessible products and services are available in the market, not only persons with disabilities who have long term difficulties in different functioning but also those who have accessibility needs temporarily or situationally can benefit from them.
Furthermore, this approach might be more cost efficient. In general, incorporation of universal design and accessibility at the initial stage of product and service design can limit further costs which may arise from modifying inaccessible goods or services at a later date. Moreover, as governments are obliged under the CRPD to remove all barriers to goods and services wherever they exist, retrofitting accessible goods or services should not be avoided due to the possibility of additional costs. Enforcing disability inclusive public procurement policies can also lead to cost savings for governments.
What is CRPD compliant public procurement?
The Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘the Convention’ also known as the CRPD) has been ratified by over 150 countries. Article 4 of the Convention outlines general obligations requiring States Parties to take measures to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability from legislation, policy and practice including from ‘any person, organization or private enterprise’.
Public procurement can mainstream inclusion in many sectors. Procurement can promote accessibility of community facilities and services in implementing the relevant Convention Articles. For example, Article 9 (accessibility) intersects with Articles 13 (access to justice), 19 (living independently), 20 (personal mobility) 21 (freedom of expression), 24(education), 25 (health), 26 (habilitation and rehabilitation), 27 (work), 28 (social protection), 29 (political and cultural life) 30 (cultural life and sport) 31 (data) and 32 (international cooperation) in terms of access to facilities, services and information. Public procurement can promote de facto equality to accelerate inclusion of people with disabilities (Article 5) and can help fulfill Convention obligations. Yet more can be done. Even in countries with inclusive public procurement policies, implementation needs to be reviewed or improved.
Addressing discrimination on the basis of disability is a priority for public procurement policy and legal reforms. Non-discriminating public procurement means people with disabilities are not excluded or restricted from benefiting from procurement processes and outcomes on an equal basis with others.
What is status of inclusive public procurement in India?
The public procurement system in India makes no
reference to disability. There are no reservations in contracts for persons with disabilities. There is a provision for preferential treatment to earmarked sectors such as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is in final stages of issuing a public procurement policy that is likely to make it mandatory for all ministries and public sector undertakings to procure 20 per cent of their total annual purchase volume from the micro and small enterprises In tender specifications, accessibility requirements are provided in tender documents but limited to tenders relating to building construction. India does not presently have accessibility standards for transport, information communication technologies etc. and tenders for these do not have any requirement to provide accessibility.
Public procurement policy 2018 just says that public procurement processes must adhere Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
What is the impact of the Indian Inclusive Public Procurement Policy on accessibility?
As of May 2017, the MTC had a scheduled fleet of 3688 buses and total fleet strength of 3968 buses. Wikipedia
The Hindu reported on 15-Feb-2019 As many as 1,816 new buses have been inducted into the fleet of ... are part of the 2,100 new buses announced in 2016-17 budget.
7 special MTC buses are inaugurated by CM in Chennai for Handicap people 29/11/2011 skyscrapercity.com. How accessible are these 7 buses? Please read
http://rajivstoryfies.blogspot.com/2021/10/a-road-to-nowhere-with-mtc-chennai-from.html
As of March 2020, Indian Railways' rolling stock consisted of 2,93,077 freight wagons, 76,608 passenger coaches and 12,729 locomotives. 8675 more coaches are expected in 2020-21.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways#:~:text=As%20of%20March%202020%2C%20Indian,at%20several%20locations%20in%20India
There is no data available on the number of so called accessible railway coaches. How accessible are these so called accessible coaches is different questions and has depth in detail in
http://rajivstoryfies.blogspot.com/2021/10/accessible-indian-railways-never-to-be.html
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