مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Procurement is the process by which organisations acquire the products and services necessary for the achievement of their project objectives at the best possible cost, quality and timing and in a way which does not damage the environment or society (Ruparthna and Hewage, 2015; PMBOK, 2013). Social procurement differs from traditional procurement in the use of procurement to leverage extra social benefits and create ‘social value’ in local communities, beyond the simple purchasing of products and services required (Bonwick, 2014). For example, in construction projects, social procurement may involve construction companies specifying products on projects which promote fair trade or requiring subcontractors and suppliers to not only deliver traditional products and services but to also provide employment opportunities for disadvantaged and marginalised groups such as the disabled, ex-offenders, ethnic minorities or the long-term unemployed.

While social procurement has a long history going back to the nineteenth century (LePage, 2014), recent momentum has been added by legislation such as the UK’s Social Value Act (2012) and new EU public procurement directives (European Union, 2014) which form part of a series of policy developments to broaden public procurement criteria beyond cost. The US has long had legal requirements for firms to engage with disadvantaged groups when tendering for public contracts and other countries like Australia are also experimenting with social procurement and are introducing new policies and guidelines such as the Federal Government’s Indigenous Procurement Policy. These place a new duty on the clients of publically funded construction projects, and those tendering on them, to consider the wider social, environmental and economic impact of their procurement decisions and to consult communities in considering how projects might improve the well-being of society. For example, in the UK, Temple and Wigglesworth (2014) found that 66% of Local Authorities and Housing Associations now require tenders to consider social value in their procurement processes and 23% said they were considering how to do it. This idea is not new. In the US, existing E-mail address: m.loosemore@unsw.edu.au. legislation such as the Public Law 95-507 Act of 1978 has long required firms tendering for construction contracts of over US$1 million submit a buying plan that includes % goals for employing minority businesses (Bonwick, 2014). In Australia too, governments are experimenting with social procurement. For example, Parramatta City Council in Western Sydney has developed a much lauded social procurement strategy to make sure its procurement and purchasing practices around construction projects contribute to the welfare and amenity of local communities (Dean, 2013).

There has been a vast amount of research into construction project procurement stretching back over fifty years. A review of papers published in eighteen leading internationally peer-reviewed journals and conferences and PhD theses over the last thirty years produced over four hundred references to procurement looking at a wide variety of issues including tendering practices, supply chain management, different project delivery systems and buying and purchasing practices (ARCOM, 2015). However, there has not been one reference to the concept of social procurement, despite the above trends. There is currently no understanding of what this means for the construction industry and how it can engage more effectively with this agenda.