Regional Public Procurement Bodies Commit to Sharing EU Audit Results
Sep 29, 2017
Visegrád Group (V4) countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – as well as Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia, have attended a joint meeting called by the Hungarian Public Procurement Authority. The public procurement bodies representing each country have signed a ‘declaration...
An e-Library for Accessing Best Practice Public Procurement Across the EU
Sep 29, 2017
Next month the European Commission intends to release a new tool for sharing good practices and solutions to common public procurement challenges, to improve the compliance and quality of public procurement across the EU. A special workshop “Procurement for better results: sharing of good...
Direct Awards of Public Works in Portugal
Sep 29, 2017
Lisbon City Council has been investigated by a Portuguese newspaper for the direct award of a €5.179.873,44 public works project to one of the largest construction companies in the country. The contract is for the repair of the Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara, one of the city’s scenic...
SmallGovCon Week In Review: September 18-22, 2017
Sep 22, 2017
Greetings from Omaha, where I’ve just wrapped up a great half-day training session sponsored by the Nebraska PTAC. If you haven’t been to Omaha, you’re missing out: I’m enjoying exploring the Old Market District, and keep wondering when I’ll run into Warren Buffett.
Of course, I’m...
Better Transparency and Fairer Competition in Public Procurement for Moldova
Sep 21, 2017
The Moldovan Public Procurement Development Strategy 2016-2020 is now in a testing phase and is due to become fully operational in 2018. eProcurement will then become mandatory for public bodies. A tool called MTender has been developed to ensure transparency at all stages of the procurement...
Ukraine Should Steer Clear of Excessive Regulations of NGOs
Sep 21, 2017
An opinion piece in the EU Observer this week calls for help in urging the Ukraine government to abandon requirements for non-government organisations to prepare extensive, what it calls, onerous, public reports about their funding and financial activities. It asks that the European Union, and...
New Public Procurement Rules in Croatia Bring Challenges
Sep 21, 2017
Since July 1, it has been obligatory for public procurement selection criteria in Croatia to be based on ‘most economically advantageous’ bids rather than lowest price. A practice commonly preferred across European nations. The State Commission for the Control of Public Procurement Procedures...
Being Efficient with Tax Payer Money Can Inhibit Innovation
Sep 21, 2017
The UK’s New Civil Engineer writes this week that at its recent conference, a panel made up of representatives from Transport for London, the Environment Agency, Heathrow Airport and Anglican Water discussed their approach to technological innovation. In doing so the concern was raised that...
Here’s How the Government Could Better Track Contract Spending
Sep 21, 2017
Lexis Nexis and the Data Foundation, a government-transparency focused advocacy group, released a report that makes a case for a decentralized but standard ID tag for all legal entities. A unified and verified code could “create a single electronic view of all legal entities, knit together from...
Scottish Government Accused of Short-changing Hospitals and Schools
Sep 21, 2017
A recent report from a leading Nuffield College Oxford professor and previous civil servant shows how Scottish Government has spent public money since taking power at Holyrood in 2007. It finds that the Scottish NHS is being squeezed by £1 billion a year to fund flagship SNP policies such as free...
Dell EMC, General Dynamics, Microsoft Awarded $1 Billion Cloud Contract
Sep 21, 2017
The U.S. Air Force has awarded the largest federal cloud-based unified communications and collaboration contract to Dell EMC, General Dynamics, and Microsoft. The $1 billion contract will continue the service branch’s massive migration to the cloud. Through the five-year term, three contractors...
Is A Lease A CDA “Contract?” Federal Circuit Says Yes
Sep 20, 2017
Although a lease may be a “contract” in common parlance, does a lease qualify as a contract under the Contract Disputes Act?
The answer is important, because the Contract Disputes Act provides jurisdiction for the Court of Federal Claims and Board of Contract Appeals to decide challenges to...
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Perspectives and Insights
We have some other written articles around the issues of lots and lotting (splitting up their contract requirements into smaller contracts), and …
One major trend over the past twenty years in public procurement has been the greater centralization of procurement activity. Conceptually and practically, collaborative procurement is …
Think you know all about public sector owned professional buying organisations (PBOs) and what they do? Here are ten interesting facts that might just surprise …
Policies and Regulations
A few months back, we published several articles about the very interesting – and somewhat shocking – court case around the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning …
The Procurement of Innovation Platform aims to make public procurement of innovation a widespread reality in Europe. The Platform has been developed to help public …
Why Evaluation in Public Procurement is Important If the phrase “bid evaluation” makes you cringe, don’t worry: you’re not alone. If …