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1. Italian MOD moves from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. Very interesting move, particularly taking into account we are talking about a Ministry of Defense. After a few (maybe one) success story with Munich, LibreOffice has not really been able to get a foothold in the public sector. 2. Banks love
Legal
1. Wither LPC? Apparently the Legal Practice Course is on its last legs. Not surprising and frankly in my view very overdue. When former students tell me that the level of detail is similar to what was achieved in one of my modules, that indicates me there is no real
Links
Ah...the dreaded post-vacation list of links. There are way too many important topics to cover on a single post, so I will need to revisit my notes over the next few days. 1. FIDE 2014 conference outputs are now available in open access. The procurement publication bit in all
Links
1. Barcelona is a wired city. Excellent Forbes article. Not strictly procurement but relevant for the field nonetheless as an indication of what extra technology and sensors can do to influence the running of a city. One of the examples provided in the article is about procurement though: the savings
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1. EU rules save British tax payer money, politicians and newspapers complain. Seriously, go and read the link. The Telegraph is particularly disingenuous by slamming EU rules for "lowest price criteria" in the lead, before quoting someone in the process with this: “The award criteria looked at the
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1. Open Contracting Data Standard project. Just come across this the other day and I think it is a great idea, although on the long run my vote is for a blockchain type of solution. 2. Draft new public procurement law in Spain is under fire (Spanish only). The draft
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1. Smart contracts are coming to Wall Street, courtesy of the block chain. This is the first concrete example I have seen of the blockchain being used as a contract ledger. I stand by earlier comments that this technology would be great in procurement. 2. European Commission makes procurement data
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1. A new PPP interview is up, this time with Piotr Bogdanowicz from Warsaw University. As with the previous episode we discussed at length the issues surrounding cross-border interest in contracts not covered by the Directives. Previous episodes can be found here and also on iTunes. 2. The Welsh NHS
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1. Portuguese Audit Court unimpressed with PFI/PPP hospital (Portuguese only). The Audit Court analysed the first couple of years of the Loures privately managed hospital in Portugal and did not find significant management improvements in comparison with the best publicly managed hospitals. Its management is better than average for
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1. PPP/PFI risks (in Spanish). I would add to the list information asymmetry and regulator capture. Very good points nonetheless. 2. Damages and re-tendering awarded in Woods Building Services vs Milton Keynes Council [2015] EWHC 2172 (TCC). Interestingly enough although Judge Coulson recognised that the decision should be set
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1. Swansea will have a tidal lagoon and main contractor is looking for suppliers. I have nothing against "meet the buyer" or networking type of events, but I am never keen on the "local" spin people put on them. 2. How easy will it be for
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1. My old job at Bangor University is up for grabs. Excellent place to start an academic career in public procurement...if you are motivated and willing to work very hard. Dermot is a great boss for those first years when we're freshly out of the Ph.D