Links I Liked [Public Procurement]

1. More data about England's Mystery Shopper Service. I still think it should morph into a proper Procurement Ombudsman a la Canadian.

2. NESTA's 6 ideas how procurement stifles innovation. Sound about right but for me reasons 4 (incentives) and 6 (skills) are the most important. Regulation is just a red herring hiding bad practice, lack of incentives and skills. There are barely any truly national procurement regulations in the UK and for the ones following this blog the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 simply copies and paste Directive 2014/24/EU for the most of it.

3. Central Government is piloting ex post (contract award) transparency. I am huge fan of contract award transparency and the more the better. Albert will caveat this with the argument it facilitates collusion (and it does, in the right markets) but I still think we will be better off in the long run. Plus, as Gianluigi Albano argued last week during Procurement Week: all that a cartel needs to know its agreement was not enforced is looking at the names in the machinery being used in a public works.

4. Scotland allegedly owes SMEs £120M. That is a lot of lolly as my former flatmate would say

5. American Universities should look into improving their procurement practice. I would say that this is sound advice also on this side of the pond.

6. Spendmatters excellent coverage about Procurement Week. Peter Smith has been blogging about what he learned and thought about Procurement Week. After trying to get him to come since 2012 it was great to finally have him there.