Public Spend Forum (PSF) is a public sector procurement global community and market intelligence platform dedicated to improving public procurement. GovShop is its free-to-use government market research tool for finding and connecting with suppliers.
Dustin Lanier, Public Procurement Change Agent, Founder & Principal Civic Initiatives, Certified Public Procurement Officer, writes about the driving characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic that show that this is not a temporary response scenario, rather a persistent reality that will reshape our organisations. He believes we should acknowledge that our new response responsibilities are not temporary and we need to rebuild our organisations around this reality. Examples of factors that will cause this to be a profession-changing event are, he says: reliance on paper and has been exposed; supply chain management will be a persistent expectation; priorities must be recalibrated quickly; budgets will become the next line of defence.
Pandemics, Public-Private Partnerships, and Force Majeure
As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads and economics stagnate and operate in isolation, the impact of significantly reduced economic activity continues to negatively impact the viability of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The Covid-19 pandemic is placing PPP Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) under considerable stress and is jeopardizing their economic and commercial viability due to lost revenue streams. This threat even extends to operators who might have felt naïvely safe because they would be protected from force majeure risks to a certain degree by government subsidies, availability payments and guarantees. However, governments are also facing fiscal challenges due to loss of taxation revenue and as their treasury coffers shrink, they are in many instances increasingly unable to meet all their obligations due to the sudden onset and magnitude of the pandemic. David Baxter, Sustainable International Development Practitioner and Public Private Partnership (PPP) Procurement Navigator, explores whether we "allow widespread project failures through shortsighted decisions, or do we collaboratively and innovatively seek solutions?”
Public Spend Forum free-to-use Covid-19 supplier research tool for PPE
The Public Spend Forum team is directly supporting government professionals and healthcare workers to address critical shortages for ventilators, respirators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and more, by providing free data on suppliers and inventory that can meet their needs on government market research tool, GovShop. Public Spend Forum researched and identified hundreds of top government contractors through GovShop and built a new COVID-19 supplier category – there are now more European suppliers on the portal too, free to use. CEO and founder Raj Sharma talked to NBC Washington about their efforts, listen to that here.
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Germany - European Commission Publishes Guidance On Public Procurement Law
Councils and RSLs advised to prepare now for backlog of building work
France: Public Contracts during the French state of health emergency
Defence scientists trial innovation to slash ambulance cleaning time
Supplier chosen for new UK defence training agreement
WHO reports fivefold increase in cyber attacks
Gearing up the public sector’s cybersecurity management
UK government secures Microsoft Azure discounts for public sector
The impact of public sector lending to SMEs on employment and investment
Events:
Ivalua Now goes virtual in May – but with all the experiences of the physical event
Join Raj Sharma, CEO of PSF, Jaime Gracia, Acquisition Manager for the Internal Revenue Service, and Sandra Oliver Schmidt, Procurement Innovation Coach for the Department of Homeland Security's Procurement Innovation Lab, as they discuss removing the barriers to small business participation in government markets.
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