Brazil's GPA accession will involve costs and benefits

Significance The agreement would open a market of USD1.7tn for Brazilian companies to compete for government procurement contracts internationally, but would also render them vulnerable to competition for Brazilian government contracts from foreign suppliers on equal terms. The process of negotiations is a lengthy one, as well as controversial. Impacts Accession to the GPA could facilitate Brazil’s ambition to join the OECD. Domestic companies’ lack of competitiveness within the GPA could aggravate existing problems with industrial performance. Political uncertainties surrounding the October elections could delay the pace of accession.

The Influence of Staff Competence on Performance of Procurement Contracts Management in Public Sector in Tanzania

The study objective was to examine the influence of staff competence on performance of procurement contracts management in public sector. The study employed a case study design as a mechanism of resource allocation. The study targeted a total of 142 employees of TIB Development Bank Ltd which is a public bank operating in Tanzania. Stratified sampling technique was employed to select 85 employees. Data were collected from the sample through interview and questionnaire and then were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics while factor analysis was used to test the suitability of the data for analysis. Findings from Multiple regression indicated that staff competence (β1 = 0.279, p < 0.05) had a positive and significant influence on the performance of procurement contracts management. Additionally, the correlation revealed that staff competence is likely to strongly improve procurement contracts management performance. It is also vital for the organization to provide training to the staff so as to allow them to develop new skills and knowledge on procurement contracts management in order to improve the performance of such contracts.

Privatization of Law Enforcement

The year 2020 ushered in growing calls to defund the police. In Canada, as in other countries where the movement to defund the police has gained momentum, activists demand transferring money from police departments to social workers, reducing the number of police officers, and increasing police departments’ democratic accountability. This last group of reform initiatives is, perhaps, the least controversial one because it calls for improving the familiar structures of democratic oversight over police departments, such as municipal councils, independent police oversight boards and complaints bodies, and others. The demands for greater accountability of police departments to the public are a symptom of a deeper problem - there is a growing discrepancy between the goals of policing and the consequences of the police’s actions. This discrepancy materializes when the police’s attempts to ensure public safety result in the marginalization of racialized communities, particularly in larger cities across Canada. In order to understand why laudable policy goals lead to deeply problematic consequences, it is necessary to analyze the policing process in our cities. While it has traditionally been assumed that this process is left to the discretion of separate police departments, this paper demonstrates that externalities, such as data generated by private technologies, play an important role in undermining the goals of policing. Reliance on private data and technology does not absolve the police of accountability for resulting human rights violations. However, it has important implications for the reform of public oversight over the police. In an era when non-governmental actors are taking part in law enforcement through procurement contracts, democratic control over the exercise of the police’s contracting powers is an important, albeit often overlooked, instrument of police reform. Relying on contracts for predictive policing technologies as a case study, this paper argues that communities should condition the funding of police procurement on ex ante assessment procedures, technical specifications, and contract enforcement rights. Also, local elected representatives should have an opportunity to approve any data and technology sharing arrangements as well as federal standing offer arrangements that extend predictive policing to their communities.

CSR communication and firms’ ability to win public procurement contracts

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the link between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication efforts of companies and their ability to obtain public procurement contracts.Design/methodology/approachThe authors are exploiting a database with the number of public procurement contracts won by SBF 120 companies in France and a constructed CSR index over the period of 2007–2015. The authors provide estimates of the amount of public contracts won by those companies.FindingsThe results suggest a striking influence of CSR communication on the ability of firms to win contracts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focused on the case of the SBF 120 companies under the French regulatory system and European directives, which are different from the obligations in North American countries. Second, our constructed CSR index may be too simplistic in nature, and its application is limited only to the French context. Third, we do not have any evidence about the efficiency of well-ranked firms in our study. CSR reporting is still considered to be a form of communication, even if formal, that can contain information that does not especially reflect reality, as the scandals of several companies have shown in recent years (e.g. Volkswagen, Eiffage, Enron).Practical implicationsCompanies should consider Business-to-Government (B-to-G) market when investing in CSR actions.Originality/valueThis is one of the first empirical studies measuring the impact of CSR on the ability of companies to win public contracts.

Two-stage contests with preferences over style

Many grant applications have a preliminary stage where only a select group are invited to submit a full application. Similarly, procurement contracts by governments are often awarded through a two-stage procedure. We model and analyze such environments where the designer cares about the style of the application as well as its quality. The designer has the option of choosing an initial stage, where contestants can enter and learn about their desirability while the designer learns about their style. We determine closed form solutions for equilibrium outcomes and designer payoffs and use this to analyze whether or not a second stage is desirable, different rules for deciding who will advance, and whether or not to communicate the number of contestants that qualify for the second stage.

PUBLIC CONTRACTS IN HOLDING COMPANIES OPERATING IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY – A CASE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

This paper is produced as an exploratory study with the aim of carrying out a taxonomy of construction companies operating in the Czech Republic, taking into account the type and number of concluded public procurement contracts. In processing the multidimensional matrix describing the companies, a cluster analysis was used to identify the dependence between the set of variables. Results of the analysis suggest that the prevailing types of public procurement procedures include negotiated procedure without prior publications, open procedure and simplified below-threshold procedure, while from the point of view of the contracted value, the open procedure is of the highest importance. As for the cluster analysis conducted for the types of public procurement analysis, one can conclude that there is a relation between the number of public contracts concluded and the scope of the types. On the other hand, the extension of the conducted cluster analysis did not provide any conclusive evidence regarding the relationship between the types of public procurement contracts and the types of holding structures. Such a study has not been realised in the Czech Republic yet. Thus, the results of this study provide a background for research in the area of public procurement in the Czech Republic. Some potential research questions have been stated in the discussion part of the paper.

A Digital Cross-border Interest in the Framework of Public Procurement Legislation: The Game Changer

Originally introduced by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the presence of 'certain cross-border interest' is used to justify the application of EU principles to public procurement contracts that fall out the scope of EU law. Nonetheless, crossborder interest needs to be proven based on the criteria settled by the CJEU. This article presents, firstly, a definition of cross-border interest and its relevance; secondly, the latest trends on digital public procurement and e-administration. Finally, the paper will discuss whether, based on the criteria of the CJEU, the expansion of digitalisation will render the presence of cross-border interest automatic, thus increasing transparency and consequently changing forever how we apply EU law.

Competitive Public Procurement during COVID-19: The Unique Political and Policy Experience of the United States

COVID-19 appeared during one of the most turbulent political environments in U.S. history. This research documents how political polarization during a presidential election year coincided with an incoherent national policy and procurement response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and empirically examines the competitive nature of pandemic-related public procurement contracts across the 50 states based on partisan control of state governments.