Public Procurement
I mentioned yesterday a plan by the UK Government for introducing social considerations under the guise of supporting apprenticeships through mandatory apprenticeship programmes in some larger contracts. The actual policy note is out (Action Note 14/15 27 August 2015) and applies to all contracts over £10M lasting for longer
Public Procurement
I have had this opinion for a number of years. As we move to procurement systems where new features target "advanced" users (innovation partnership & competitive procedure with negotiation, I am looking at you) we forget how much low hanging fruit still exists in public procurement waiting to
Public Procurement
"The meteorological service said it was disappointed by the BBC’s decision to put out to tender the contract, which has been in place since the corporation’s first radio weather bulletin on 14 November 1922. Steve Noyes, operations and customer services director at the Met Office, said: “Nobody
Public Procurement
Game over. The two scribes can finally lay down their pens - nay, keyboards - after finally concluding the daily commentary on the Public Contracts Regulations. It took Albert and I a little over 6 months to go through the 122 Regulations one by one, little by little. We concluded it today
Public Procurement
Part 5 - REVOCATIONS, CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS, SAVINGS AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS Albert suggested that perhaps it would be better to finish off this season of procurement tennis with a general analysis of Part 5 (paragraphs 115 - 122) instead of going article by article and I agree with his view. Therefore this is
Public Procurement
Regulation 114 - General provisions applicable to Part 4 Regulation 114 assures that the underlying validity of a public contract is not affected by a "material failure" to comply with requirements set in this Part 4. The second paragraph restates something that should be obvious and logic: nothing on
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
Public Procurement
Regulation 113 - Payment of undisputed invoices within 30 days by contracting authorities, contractors and subcontractors This Regulation establishes that valid and undisputed invoices should be paid within 30 days of their date by contracting authorities, contractors and subcontractors. This obligation should be included in the main contract and filters down
Public Procurement
NESTA commissioned a piece of research to SpendNetwork about startup success rate in public procurement. I have not seen the underlying data or writeup, but trust Ian Makgill to have done a good job.* The headline figures are starkly: only 3% of spend goes to companies within the first 5
Public Procurement
Regulation 112 - Publication of information on Contracts Finder about contracts awarded Regulation 112 caps Chapter 8 with a set of rules on how contracting authorities are to publish contract award information on Contracts Finder. As we are talking about below-thresholds contracts, the obligation this is a purely national obligation.
Links
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
Public Procurement
Regulation 111 - Assessing suitability etc A contracting authority shall not include a pre-qualification stage in a procurement. Regulation 111 bars contracting authorities from using pre-qualification stages in the procurement of some contracts covered by Chapter 8. This constitutes a remarkable change in practice as many contracting authorities routinely