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Ethical guidelines for the purchase of goods and services

The following are University of Oslo’s guidelines for ethical behavior and key values which lay out the forms of ethical conduct.

If you are in doubt about purchasing, your question should be put to your immediate superior.

Introduction 

Public procurement carries particular risks. It is important to be aware of these. Ethical guidelines, together with the procurement framework at UiO, help to prevent, detect and correct non-conformities. When carrying out procurement, there is a risk of: 

  • Misuse of public funds 
    • Surveys show that between 3 and 5 percent of public enterprise purchases do not meet any needs or lead to any improvements
    • The purpose of the central purchasing function is to prevent such purchases, especially during the planning and follow-up phase
  • Influence / corruption
    • Where there are opportunities for gain, there will be a risk that some people wish to place themselves in a favourable position through ‘shady’ or illegal means. This also includes a mix of interests of various kinds
  • Fraud and deception
    • Incorrect invoicing and overcharging are examples of things that are detected. Much of this is detected through the follow-up of agreements, as well as through routines in connection with payment

Among other things, the main measures used to prevent, detect and correct the aforementioned non-conformities are routines, guidelines and internal control.

Purpose

The University of Oslo’s (UiO) Ethical Guidelines will help UiO to act with great integrity, so that the general public has confidence that public procurement takes place in a socially beneficial manner, to manage public funds in a proper manner and to prevent unethical behaviour and corruption in connection with procurement. The guidelines are based on universal ethical values and norms such as fairness, role clarity, integrity, loyalty, honesty, reliability, truthfulness and treating others as one would like to be treated.

The role of the Procurement Office

The Procurement Office (SI) is part of the Department of Finance and Business Management (ØVA) and, with the help of good procurement, will contribute to increased value creation for both UiO and society in general.

In accordance with the current responsibility structure, the Procurement Office has an advisory and guiding role in relation to units at the university. This means that each unit is responsible for its own procurement in terms of finance, planning and management.

UiO’s procurement advisers have a high level of procurement expertise and carry out all procurements in accordance with applicable laws and associated regulations, as well as their own procurement principles. Our goal is to guide and provide support to units in the best possible way so that purchasing is carried out in accordance with UiO’s procurement principles and regulations. 

Expectations of individual employees

The applicable ethical guidelines apply to all employees. The guidelines will help ensure that employees act with great ethical integrity and high moral standards in accordance with UiO’s values. The ethical guidelines are intended to be general rules of conduct, but they also require awareness and reflection from individual employees. Managers in particular are expected to be very careful and stand out as good examples for their employees, as well as take responsibility for making the guidelines known in their area of work.

Use of agreements

Established agreements must be used, if the procurement requirement can be met using the agreement in question. UiO’s agreements must not be utilised for private use.

Misuse of public funds

Employees must avoid making purchases that do not meet the needs of UiO and may prevent UiO’s value creation. It is important that employees follow the established routines and systems that contribute to good internal control routines related to invoicing, ordering, follow-up and performance reporting. With the help of these measures, we are able to maintain society’s confidence that UiO uses public funds in a proper manner.

Receipt of gifts and other benefits

As an employee or employee representative, you are not allowed to receive gifts, money or other benefits from partners, suppliers or others. There are some exceptions regarding modest gifts, such as a Christmas greeting, where it is obvious that the benefit will not influence decisions. Such gifts should always be given in full transparency and be clarified in advance with the management. Gifts should never be received in the form of cash to individuals. If there is any doubt whether a benefit can be received, it should be declined.

Business relationships and socialising

Employees are only permitted to go on a trip/visit during working hours when it can be justified as part of the establishment’s requirements and has a professional content. This also applies when suppliers or others offer visits to private or public companies, inspections, seminars, courses, exhibition trips or other events, both when arranged during leisure time and during working hours. This also applies to the inspection of instruments and similar things related to teaching. Travel and visits must always be approved by the immediate manager and paid for by the University of Oslo.

Misuse of information

Confidential information received in connection with a work relationship must be respected and not used for personal gain. Information received from the market about offers and providers must be treated confidentially and not misused, for example, in relation to competing providers. The duty of confidentiality also applies after employees have left their job. The law’s requirement that employees must act in accordance with good business practice, have high ethical standards and act with great integrity applies without exception.

Equal treatment of suppliers

It is important to act with great caution in research and development projects in order to avoid the management of the projects being confused with any subsequent procurements, cf. UiO’s regulations concerning impartiality, gifts and sponsorship. Experience gained from such projects can be used when developing requirement specifications in the procurement process. However, suppliers from development projects cannot then be involved in a way that discriminates, leads to breaches of the principle of equality, prevents a supplier from participating in the competition or otherwise restricts or excludes genuine competition. 

Impartiality and conflict of interest

A person who is disqualified or ‘biased’ in a legal sense means circumstances exist that may undermine confidence in that person’s impartiality regarding a particular case. Employees are responsible for assessing their own impartiality when making a procurement. If there is any doubt regarding the employee’s impartiality, the immediate manager is to make the final decision.

UiO employees must not seek to gain benefits for themselves or related persons that may lead to questions being raised regarding their integrity.

In addition, UiO employees cannot take part in or seek to influence a procurement during its preparatory phase, through descriptions and decisions of a procurement requirement that may be perceived as, or cause a conflict of interest. This may be a personal interest in the procurement, financial or otherwise, directly or by related persons.

Employees must not take part in or influence UiO procurements from their own or a related person’s company. If purchases are planned to be made from a company where the procurement adviser knows that UiO employees have interests, the person must withdraw from the procurement process and appoint an appropriate replacement.

Employees participating in an procurement process must assess their impartiality at the start of the process and sign a declaration of impartiality after receiving the offer. However, it can be difficult at times to determine whether a conflict of interest actually exists. When in doubt, the issue must be discussed with the immediate manager before the case is presented to the Procurement Office for further processing.

Corruption and cronyism

Corruption is defined as the abuse of power in trusted positions for private gain and includes bribery and corruption. These can be seen in the form of various types of bribes and personal benefits.

According to Transparency International Norway, this is called friendship corruption. Cronyism is not tolerated at UiO and is recognised when friends and old acquaintances are favoured in procurements and tenders.

Corruption and trading in influence are punishable under the Norwegian Penal Code. Both the individual and the enterprise can be punished with imprisonment or fines.

Requirements and expectations of suppliers 

All tenders carried out at UiO require suppliers to comply with UiO’s ethical guidelines, national legislation and internationally recognised conventions such as the ILO Conventions, as well as Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The most important international guidelines drawn up by the International Labour Organization (ILO) set out requirements that must be met by our suppliers. When submitting tenders and throughout the entire contract period, they are obligated to comply with given laws. Among other things, these include, but are not limited to: Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, the right to collective bargaining, the prohibition of forced labour, equal pay for male and female workers, the minimum age for admission to employment and the abolishment of child labour. These requirements affect manufacturers, agents and subcontractors of UiO's main suppliers.

UiO expects suppliers to act loyally towards UiO employees and comply with contractual requirements.

UiO places high demands on supplier integrity related to awareness of ethical trade, bribery, corruption and any other form of unethical conduct, or evidence of it, in any given procurement process.

Particular challenges

The Procurement Office has a responsibility to lead and guide UiO employees during the implementation of procurement processes in accordance with applicable regulations. During this work, we will inevitably face more challenges, where some of them will occur more often than others.

Improper use of funds, challenges of interest and the risk of corruption have the greatest consequences, and we are working actively on measures designed to combat each of these.

UiO has signed several memberships in order to combat corruption and unethical behaviour in the university’s operations. In addition, we are actively working to meet the environmental and climate targets. As a supportive contribution, we have established internal templates and forms to help map the key problem areas.

Employees must not use their positions for personal gain, but through their actions should maintain and enhance respect for their position and thereby promote a good impression of the University of Oslo. Individuals shall conduct themselves with great integrity.

  • We are working together with Transparency International Norway (TI) to fight procurement corruption. The values that characterise TI and that are actively promoted are: transparency, integrity, reliability, solidarity, fairness and democracy.
  • Ethical Trade Norway does an important job in promoting social responsibility and assists us in detecting unethical trade in the management of our agreements. Related to the same area, Factlines offers a database with an overview of particular risks regarding ethical breaches in the supply chains that UiO collaborates with. 
  • Sustainability is important for the University, and we are constantly developing and improving. Together with Green Dot Norway and the Network for Ecolabelled Procurement, we are working to achieve UiO’s goal of reducing the carbon footprint.
  • Procurement practices at UiO have been significantly improved in recent years by increasing demands on suppliers in the form of compliance with the UN’s Global Compact principles; human rights, workers’ rights, the environment, anti-corruption, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), strategy and ethical guidelines, mapping of supplier status and production countries, the suppliers’ self-assessment of risks in countries from which they make purchases, as well as organisational management systems.
Published Aug. 28, 2013 2:43 PM - Last modified Sep. 21, 2021 1:28 PM