Public Procurement
As promised yesterday, here's the second part of the fisking of the UK Government response to the NAO report on public procurement, focused on the "claims" section of its response: “ ” This is, frankly, pure obfuscation by means of mixing up completely different things together in the
Public Procurement
Last week I mentioned here the National Audit Office Report on COVID procurement which painted the UK Government procurement practice in a terrible light. Predictably, the Government responded with a note published on the Cabinet Office website. Said note, unfortunately, constitutes a prime example of a non-response response, that is
Public Procurement
The National Audit Office has just published this morning its report about the COVID related procurement practice in the UK up to the end of July. Despite the cautious and factual language, the truth is that as the title to this entry indicates, it makes for a very grim reading.
Public Procurement
I had the chance to speak virtually in two events this week, the first organised by Albert Sanchez-Graells from Bristol and Neli Garbuzanova about Healthcare procurement and commissioning during COVID-19. My short presentation is available here. I really like the narrow and tight focus of this event: 5 speakers, 90
Public Procurement
The Open Contracting Partnership and Spend Network have just published a report on the global expenditure in public procurement. The headline figure is that only 3% of the yearly USD13 trillion is published openly, that is information about the actual contract after the tender has concluded. Somehow, I cannot say
Public Procurement
The most recent book on the European Procurement Law Series has been published with Edward Elgar and covers PPPs and concessions. Here's the blurb: In view of the fact that public infrastructure, health and other services are being more consistently delivered through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and concessions; this
Public Procurement
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has just published a Review into the risks of fraud and corruption local government procurement in England and Wales. And, frankly, the findings are not great. Here's a particular tidbit about a bugbear of mine: "Efforts to combat fraud
Public Procurement
The Public Accounts Committee published yesterday its report on the Whole of Government Response to COVID-19 and, predictably, it pulls no punches: "5.There were fundamental flaws in the government’s central procurement and local distribution of vital goods and equipment. We recognise that the government was faced with
Legal
One of the most puzzling features of the assessment strategy in the UK's Higher Education sector is its over reliance on essays. Students are given a topic or questions and then have a few weeks to write a few thousand words about said topic. On my law degree,
Public Procurement
I have been looking a bit into disaster procurement to get my head around as to why so much of the COVID-19 related procurement seems terrible. Had the chance to read Schwartz Katrina's lessons for ongoing US procurement reform efforts and was floored to see so many similarities
Public Procurement
I have kept myself quiet for some time as a way to simply observe the unfolding of the COVID crisis and the procurement answers to it. I think it is fair to say that 4-5 months in, we're firmly in the new normal and that implies some considerations.
Legal
A couple of days ago I expressed some strong reservations regarding Apple's anti-trust strategy and how it was fuelling the competition law infringement fire instead of taking some evasive measures. Well, this week's WWDC is showing less competition law recklessness on the part of the company.