The Ministry of National Development (MND) and the Hungarian National Asset Management Ltd. (HNAM) have set up a new data base to help companies employing differently abled persons and customers of socially responsible public procurement tenders. Market access and establishing contact to customers are facilitated by a free, user friendly web surface accessible on the website of HNAM, Deputy State Secretary for Public Procurement Andrea Jánosi announced in Budapest on 9 January, 2014.

Through socially responsible public procurement, the government wishes to effectively support broadening the employment opportunities of differently abled persons, Andrea Jánosi emphasised. Employers protected from the point of view of public procurement are any market players that are socially accredited and in the case of which at least 50% of the employees are differently abled persons. The EU public procurement directives and the Hungarian regulations based on the former allow contracting authorities to lawfully reserve public procurement contracts for such companies. The four employers protected by the state provide guaranteed employment for over 11 thousand people altogether, including ca. 9100 differently abled persons.

According to the most recent statistics, contracting authorities have made use of the lawful opportunity to apply social considerations to an insignificant extent. Data of the Public Procurement Authority reveal that, between January and November last year, procedures based on social considerations made up only 1.2% of all procedures in both number and value. In the first 11 months of 2013, the total value of the 131 such public procurement procedures launched was HUF 27.1 billion. The reason for the limited interest is that contracting authorities have no routine in conducting procurements based on special considerations, because of which they need further guidelines in addition to the relevant provisions in the legislation.

Lacking the adequate information, it is a rather complicated and complex task to prepare a socially responsible public procurement tender, which is a serious challenge to contracting authorities. This is where the initiative of MND and HNAM wishes to bring about a permanent change, Andrea Jánosi underlined.

The wide-scale application of socially responsible public procurement tenders is to be facilitated by a free and user-friendly web surface on the website of HNAM. The database to be used in procurement procedures is to help customers and protected employers to establish contact. The public database may also contribute to increasing the number of companies employing differently abled people. Thanks to the open and free database, the capacity of the employers concerned may be used to a greater extent in future. For the continuous enlargement of the information stored in the system it is essential that protected employers help the initiative in great numbers and with precise data provision.

“It is of prior importance for the Hungarian National Asset Management Ltd. to increase the profitability of the companies in its portfolio that employ protected employees. Beyond the aspiration of HNAM as owner, the portal set up jointly with MND provides a surface that may also help the market access of private businesses with protected employees. Thereby, as a responsible company, HNMA has joined the government effort that focuses on the employment of and the creation of employment opportunities for differently abled persons, CEO of HNMA Péter Márton emphasised.

The major protected employers are:
- SZEFO Ltd. in Szeged: From the total number of 1 004 employees, the rate of differently abled persons is 54.3 percent. The main specialisation of the company is the manufacturing and export of upper fashion knitwear.
- ERFO Rehabilitative Employment Non-Profit Ltd.: From the 1630 employees, the number of differently abled persons is ca. 1400. The divisions of the company are: a print, a textile plant, a leather plant, training workshops, a sorghum processing and broom manufacturing plant and a carpenter plant.
- Főkefe Non-Profit Ltd.: 3500 persons of the 4000 employees are differently abled. The main feature of the company is the manufacturing of brushes and brooms.
- Kézmű Non-Profit Ltd.: The 4600 employees include 3700 differently abled persons and almost 1800 employees live in institutional care. The divisions of the company are clothing and leather industrial, miscellaneous industrial products and sports articles.

(Ministry of National Development Communications Department, Hungarian National Asset Management Ltd.)