Links I Liked [Public Procurement]
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 Government takes ham fisted approach to slow payments in public procurement supply chains (Spanish). This is a tough nut to crack and I keep going in circles if the State should interfere with purely private relationships, even though the problem of slow payments to sub-contractors is indeed real. But the Spanish state idea of awarding points for prompt payment seems way too far fetched too me. There has to be a better way.
4. Announcing the Agile BPA awards: A conversation about the process. Very interesting initiative by 18F, the USA equivalent to the UK Digital Service.
5. What if citizens (and economic operators) could rate public authorities? Speculative but the more I think about the issue of reputation in public procurement cuts both ways. There is no reason why economic operators should not factor that piece of information in their go/no go decisions.