Thresholds. I have written a couple of times (here and here) about how the EU financial thresholds make no sense in this day and age. Long story short, they were created in the 70s and 80s and have largely remained unchanged once EEC/European Union joined the GPA. There is
USA
For once, it is not me saying it but Dixon, Rimmer and Waschik in their "Evaluating the effects of local content measures in a CGE model: Eliminating the US Buy America(n) programs" paper: "Like many countries, the U.S. implements local content policies. Through these policies,
Public Procurement
1. US General Services Administration prototypes blockchain. 2. PFI is bankrupting Britain. 3. Portuguese CPB officials under fire for accepting trips paid by economic operator (Portuguese only). 4. Critics see hole in Royal Navy’s new shipbuilding strategy. 5. Abnormally low tenders raise (legal) questions in Portugal (Portuguese only).
Public Procurement
The European Commission has just published its position paper regarding public procurement within the context of the Brexit negotiations. Here are the main take aways: 1. Current rules are to be followed until Brexit happens and procedures/framework agreements being conducted at that moment subject to the same rules as
Public Procurement
Portugal has just transposed the Procurement Directives (well, new law is not in force yet). The full blown 476 article law (Decree-Law 111-B/2017) revising the Public Contracts Code is available here in Portuguese only. Needless to say it goes well beyond the requirements for transposition, maintaining instead the model
Three days on, I'm still unable to say much about what happened in Barcelona. But I can talk about our enduring special relationship. The city where I got married remains my mistress. The city where I lived a challenging year a decade ago, but to which I return
Public Procurement
This is about a week old, but a pretty big deal. What a monumental screw up: “” That the procurement procedure did not take into account how to handle classified data (let alone the bog standard data protection rules) is beyond comprehension. Well, not really: it is another piece of evidence
Public Procurement
1. China’s new Silk Road risks unravelling in Hungary. 2. Catalan construction companies investigated for possible cartel [Spanish only]. 3. The U.S. Government’s long road to adopting the cloud. 4. Buy American’ has little meaning in today’s world of globalized supply chains. 5. New Spanish procurement
Public Procurement
The European Commission has just fined Google for abuse of dominant position for giving an illegal advantage to its own comparison shopping service on search results. The fine is big €2.4B but it is simply the beginning of a long story instead of the closure of another. The decision
Links
1. Chicago wants to modernise procurement. 2. Vigo Council migrates to Linux. 3. Public procurement: making the world a better place - one order at a time. 4. Lessons learned from attempting to fix tech procurement. 5. Cladding for Grenfell Tower was the cheaper, more flammable option.
Public Procurement
Good article on the Local Government Lawyer about information security: “ ” That is all true, but the problem of information security/management is not valid for the duration of the procurement procedure only. It is valid for contract performance as well, something that as we saw a few weeks ago with
Public Procurement
1. Public procurement is making the world a better place—one order at a time. 2. Learning Insights: Open contracting – a helping hand in Nepal. 3. The U.S. Has Forgotten How to Do Infrastructure. 4. Spain will create procurement oversight body. (Spanish only) 5. Trump's 'Buy