Links
I should have called this the "things that do not work" edition... 1. Trams in Washington do not run, even after $200M being spent. 2. E-Borders programme costs UK £800m and does not work. Well, technically it does, but not to the level expected. 3. Airwave withdraws injunction
Links
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:
Links
1. More info about the "Crown Marketplace" for local authorities. Not very juicy, but Central Government keeps pushing for lowering participation barriers. 2. Procurement of reactors in Hungary appears to fall prey of procurement rules. Although to be honest the biggest problem appears to be related with State
Public Procurement
1. Albert and Andrea Gideon have a new paper on the binding of universities to public procurement rules, using English universities as a case study. Albert also digs into AG Sharpston's recent opinion on restrictions to sub-contracting. 2. A nice Spanish civic engagement platform to keep track of
Links
1. What public procurement documents need to be published upfront? Myself and Albert have dabbed on this in the past, but the problem should have been solved directly in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. But hey, as usual "it's the Directive's fault for not being
Links
1. Lord Carter's report on NHS procurement is out. Apparently it recommends a deep cleaning. Or a good scrubbing. 2. 18F tests GitHub for reverse auctions for small pieces of coding work. Contracts start at $3499 and contractors bid down the price and are only paid if they
Links
1. Scotland wants to use public procurement to find good employers. Peter Smith thinks this is a flawed approach and I am inclined to agree. It never ceases to amaze me, Government's desire (and ability) to bend procurement to achieve goals not connected with its core function. 2.
Links
1. First International Workshop of the Learning Lab on Public Procurement and Human Rights will be held on November 19th in Geneva in Switzerland. Unfortunately I cannot make it. Related to this topic, an investigation made by DanWatch on forced labour in China's supply chains. Both via Claire
Links
1. Commission is organising a bio-based economy workshop. It's on procurement and I got a shout out from Bertrand Wert on twitter about it. 2. Ph.D opportunity in procurement and gender equality at Queen Mary University. 3. The benefits of open contracting. Interesting read, especially for Albert
Links
1. One more PPP episode is out. This time with Marta Andrecka from Aarhus University where we talk at length about framework agreements and how they are being used in the UK and Denmark. This is episode 8 of 20 and as usual, many thanks to the British Academy Rising
Links
1. Government outlines 'smartphone state', via Uber and blockchain. Great Wired interview with Matt Hancock (UK Government). I am ever so more bullish on the potential of the blockchain to be used in public procurement, particularly as a distributed contract ledger and "reputation repository". 2. Spanish
Links
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