Links I Liked [Public Procurement]

1. New podcast available, this time with Mihaly Fazekas from the University of Cambridge. Great talk about corruption in public procurement and new strategies on how to detect it.

2. Albert wrote an excellent post on the risks of central contracts registries. Sitting on the other sited of the argument I fundamentally disagree with his premise, but he raises important points that need to be taken into account when designing these systems. We need to be aware of the trade offs imposed by contract registries. Hopefully I will have the time this week to lay down the arguments for the opposite position.

3. Netherlands wants to replace OpenXML (Microsoft standard) with ODF (open source document standard). It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. ODF is an unencumbered open source standard that Microsoft keeps not supporting well on Microsoft Office.

4. Sweden tightens procurement labour rules (allegedly). Andrea Sundstrand who I interviewed for the PPP a while back says there is nothing new in here.

5. David Cameron promises fresh shakeup of public services. We'll see how this ends.