Ireland Joins OpenPEPPOL for eInvoicing Compliance
Jan 26, 2018
PEPPOL enables businesses to communicate electronically with any European government institution in the procurement process, allowing public agencies and private enterprises to do business easily and quickly. OpenPEPPOL is the multi-lateral agreement structure that governs it. Ireland’s Minister...
Challenge By Contractor Over Unusually Cheap Bid
Jan 26, 2018
An Austrian contractor has lodged a complaint to the Croatian government for awarding the contract to build the 2.4-km-long bridge to a Chinese consortium, challenging it as an “unusually cheap” bid. Explains Global Construction Review: on 12 January Croatia chose the Chinese group, which had...
First Register Of Its Kind On Bidders For Public Procurement
Jan 26, 2018
After a bit of a time lapse against the original promised date, the UK government has published a timetable for a new law to create the ‘world’s first’ public register of overseas beneficial owners of property and bidders for public procurement contracts. It will require overseas entities...
London Garden Bridge Failed Project – In The News Again
Jan 26, 2018
The Architect’s Journal reports that the “Garden Bridge Trust refuses to hand over meeting records.” Following the termination of the Garden Bridge project, and after a loss of nearly £50 million of taxpayers’ money, critics say the charity behind the halted project has ‘gone rogue’...
A Classic Tale Of Terrible Public Procurement
Jan 26, 2018
The UK Ministry of Justice has been slammed by the influential Public Accounts Committee for its disastrous electronic tagging programme, branding it a “catastrophic waste of public money” – reports diginomica. Electronic monitoring allows the police, courts or probation services to monitor...
Hungary – Inquiry Into Contract Awards Without Competition
Jan 26, 2018
Hungarian prosecutors have ordered an inquiry into a company once co-owned by the Prime Minister’s son-in-law. A two-year investigation by the EU anti-fraud office found a series of irregularities at the company. 35 public lighting modernisation projects had been won by the company between 2011...
Council Of Europe’s Anti-Corruption Monitoring Body Report
Jan 18, 2018
The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body Groups of States Against Corruption (GRECO) assesses evaluations of countries’ levels of compliance with corruption prevention. These reports contain recommendations to the evaluated countries in order to improve their compliance. It has...
New Simpler Contract for SMEs in Public Work
Jan 18, 2018
The UK Government Legal Department’s (GLD) Commercial Law Group announced a new slimline Public Sector Contract to make public sector work more accessible to smaller companies (SMEs). This easier to navigate and use document gives a more user-friendly route to government work and a quicker, more...
Setting Goals for OMB, GSA’s e-Commerce Portal
Jan 18, 2018
The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are working to develop recommendations on what laws and policies need changing or updating to implement what’s being called the Amazon amendment. The agencies held a listening session for federal employees and...
Ukraine – Public Procurements Complaints Grow In 2017
Jan 18, 2018
Head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has reported that the number of complaints about public procurement in 2017 grew by 1.8 times, from 3,067 in 2016 to 5,684 in 2017. “… the Economic Development and Trade Ministry noted cases of abuse of the mechanism of contesting the results of...
Polish Government Develops National Cryptocurrency
Jan 18, 2018
The Polish government hopes to revolutionise payments and the banking system by developing a national cryptocurrency, reports Open Access Government. The development of a digitalised national cryptocurrency, called Digital PLN (dPLN), is being worked on by the Polish Blockchain Technology...
PFI Deals – A New NAO Report
Jan 18, 2018
UK National Audit Office has produced a report with information about the rationale, costs and benefits of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), the use and impact of PFI, the ability to make savings from operational contracts, and the introduction of PF2. There are currently over 700 operational...
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