Competitive dialogue has always been an exception route, to be used only where the open and restricted procedures cannot generate the required outcome or where the authority does not know the detail of what it wants to buy (and how) in advance. Nothing new in the most recent statement, then? (more…)
Just before Christmas, the EU sneaked out proposals for a new public procurement directive. You could lose the will to live in trying to digest the hundreds of pages of draft new laws. While some of it sounds good, the devil is in the detail. But the net effect will be to sink a series of flagship policies from the coalition government. For instance: (more…)
Service level agreements – or SLAs – had long been seen as the domain IT service provision but are now broadly used in many industry sectors to help provide a framework of understanding. These can encompass such critical areas as mechanisms for monitoring and reporting of service, as well as service standards. (more…)
An anonymous complaint to the European Commission – asking for an investigation into whether the preferred bid broke rules on state aid – was reported to be the final straw for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which bemoaned the “legal paralysis” that has affected the tender. (more…)
Methods put forward to make the rules less complicated, helping SMEs win contracts and increasing the way public buying supports sustainability and innovation are all broadly in line with what the Commission also wants to achieve.
And while most of the document is framed in diplomatic, civil-service-speak, there are a few pointed remarks, most notably that the EC’s previous attempt to modernise and simplify the rules actually made them more unclear and complex. (more…)
Recent high-profile data breaches including 100 million Sony Games users’ data being hacked and a pre-school fined for posting parent information publicly has highlighted the risk of inadequate data protection.
Customer data is precious, employee data too, yet how much rigour are brands applying to its protection? True event experts consider the risk of selecting certain destinations, carrying out health and safety and environmental assessments and compiling contingency plans, but are they missing the obvious? (more…)
Despite the expectations of some, the Act remains vague in respect of where the line is drawn between taking hard cash (nasty), and entertaining corporate guests at high profile events at Henley, Wimbledon, Twickers and Wembley (considered by many to be acceptable).
Few, if any, commentators are predicting a raft of court cases for companies and their staff over-stepping the line, because nobody really knows where the line is. (more…)
Public procurements always seem to get a bad press. Despite the great achievements of everyone involved in public purchasing to do more every day with ever-decreasing budgets, it is only the failures that grab the column inches.
Not an organisation to let a small thing like a financial meltdown get it down, the European Commission yesterday published a rather self-congratulatory statement entitled How the EU budget delivers value to you.
Following Francis Maude’s statement to public sector buyers on a ‘presumption against competitive dialogue’, you could be forgiven for being a little confused.![[Bloglines]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
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