Links I Liked [Public Procurement]

1. Mexico City starts publishing live public procurement open data (Spanish only).

2. GDS is looking for help to design "digital first" public contracts that are easy and simple to use. I am fully supportive of initiatives like this.

3.  On the same vein, is now easier to sign contracts/documents in the G-Cloud 8 framework.

4. We need more contract implementation data says the OKF. Having been a procurement lawyer myself, contract implementation stage is always a good moment to try and extract concessions from the contracting authority. This view is supported by the whole body of research by Jean Tirole and colleagues on incomplete contracts. As there is no competition and limited transparency, economic operators have all the incentives to bend arms and rules at this stage.

Even then I would not be surprised if added transparency at performance stage would simply shift the focus from cost increases (which can be quantified) to quality decreases (which cannot be quantified easily).