Public contracts

Commitment to regional purchasing just a joke?

Granite slab stones from China were used on the Böhmerwaldstrasse construction site in Grünbach in 2019.

(Bild: Werner Pöchinger)

A new practical guide from the Upper Austrian government for public procurement is supposed to guarantee "sustainable and quality-oriented procurement - especially from a procurement law perspective". For various reasons, the Greens suspect that this is a "hoax" and will raise the issue in the state parliament tomorrow.

The fact that Chinese granite was used on a road construction site in the Mühlviertel granite region, of all places, caused a stir back in 2019. Most recently, the procurement of Chinese electric cars for the state government was averted. As reported, there is now a new practical guideline from the state to ensure that small and medium-sized local companies are given preference for public contracts in future.

Too few lessons learned from the Granit case?
This will be discussed in the state parliament on Thursday: The Greens suspect a "diversionary maneuver" or a "hoax" behind the updated guidelines. After all, the black-blue coalition had already admitted after the China granite case in 2019 that there was more room for maneuver in public procurement - within the framework of the Federal Procurement Act, recalls Green Party leader Severin Mayr.

"Professional procurement"
"What has actually been done in recent years to really promote local companies in practice?" asks Mayr. Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) sees no great need for action: "The province of Upper Austria has had a professional procurement system in place for many years." The new practical guide also takes sustainable and ecological aspects into account.

Oral question to Stelzer
The Greens are not satisfied with this: In an oral question on Thursday, they want to know from Stelzer how he intends to guarantee "compliance with social and human rights standards, the exclusion of child labor or the appropriate consideration of climate protection and sustainability" in the state's procurement system.

In the view of the Greens, the EU Supply Chain Act, which was rejected by the ÖVP and FPÖ, would have provided an answer to this question: "It would prevent cheap goods from weakening the domestic market. Goods that have human rights violations and environmental destruction in tow," says Mayr.