Links I Liked [Public Procurement]

1. Evaluation of tenders after the expiry of their validity does not annul tender for EU public contracts (T-553/13). Albert comments on case T-553/13.

2. UK Government spent 27.1% of procurement spend with SMEs. Full dataset here. It is all on the way how you count it: only 10.9% was spent directly with SMEs, the rest came via supply chain arrangements. It makes as much sense as the claims by multinationals that their employees pay a lot of tax on the countries where they operate.

3. UnitingCare, NHS Provider Consortium, Folds and Walks Away from Cambridge Contract. Ohm dear.

4. Court of Appeal overturns conviction of former Portuguese Education Minister in procurement case (Portuguese only). Long story short, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues awarded €220k worth of services (including legal) to the brother of another Minister. The Audit Court considered the contract illegal and she was found guilty in first instance. However, the Court of Appeal repealed the decision, interpreting the then existing law (Decree-Law 197/99) with a law yet to come into force at the time (Public Contracts Code). This is a great example of why legal services should be subject to the same procurement rules as all other services.

As for the fact the Court of Appeal decided to base its decision on a non-existent law at the time, well maybe they did not even notice the existence of Directive 2004/18 and that Directives generate indirect effect.

5. Corruption And 'Tenderpreneurs' Bring Kenya's Economy To Its Knees. Great writeup by Forbes on corruption in Kenya. Speaking of corruption and transparency.