Links I Liked [Public Procurement]
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 whole life cost of vehicles rather than just the purchase price; taking into account ongoing costs such as fuel usage and servicing to ensure police forces get the best value for money." So much for lowest price.
There are other pearls in the article: "But there was controversy when 1965 the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary put an order for Volvo estate cars from Sweden. That was followed by a decision by Thames Valley police to order BMW cars in 1972." The irony, of course, is that the UK joined the then EEC in 1973.. Hat tip to @RalphGrahn.
2. Renua presents its ideas for public procurement in Ireland. More here. It is great to see a centrist party giving importance to procurement and chiding away from easy, populist musings about the topic. Note: I modestly contributed to their policy document.
3. How much measuring is too much? Not really connected with public procurement (except in the part related to the professionalisation of the workforce) but Accenture and Deloitte have reviewed their annual performance reviews for staff. One has to be careful with what he measures...
4. Speaking of which... Is procurement focus probably stymying innovation, asks Stephen Ashcroft. Applicable to both private and public procurement alike.
5. The US Digital Service makes it to Hacker News and Y Combinator. A ringing endorsement to the US Digital Service by the leading startup accelerator programme in the world. Although the work Central Government is making in the UK to improve the accessibility and friendliness of their websites and its work is seen from the US as a benchmark (including the Crown Commercial Service), I find the US Digital Service much more ambitious and interesting in the long run. It is one thing to improve the output, another completely different to change the processes. There is a freshness to US Digital Service lacking elsewhere. Plus, it is simply more modern and forward looking than anything we have here in Europe. If you do not believe me, read their Playbook.
Edit: I forgot to mention the UK's Government Digital Service which, unfortunately, appears to be imploding.