As last week was a bank holiday here in the UK, we are publishing our roundup of highlights from our public sector Europe site a bit later than usual (we wouldn't want you to miss out!). Public Spend Matters Europe is dedicated to the exciting and fascinating matters connected with European public sector procurement. As usual, before you think about switching off, it's worth remembering that around Europe, we are talking about well over a trillion Euros of money from taxpayers and citizens being spent by government and public sector bodies of some sort. Worth doing well, you might consider.
If you find anything interesting please do click through to the full article:
European Parliament Corruption Study Released -- €5 Billion Per Year Related to Public Procurement
A study released by the European Parliament finds that the cost of corruption to GDP in Europe is up to €990 billion (6.3 percent of overall GDP) - eight times higher than estimated by the European Commission in 2014. It found that corruption related to public procurement was estimated to cost nearly €5 billion per year. RAND Europe – the research institute that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis – carried out the research for the European Parliament, and it makes some recommendations to address the problems.
In the 17th episode of the Public Procurement Podcasts, Dr Pedro Telles of Swansea University talks to Dr. Grith Skovgaard Olykke, Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, about abnormally low tenders in public procurement. They talk about why it is a difficult area to pin down, as a lot of discretion lies with contracting authorities and the national review bodies. They also discuss what has changed with the recent directives, and the obligations to verify and reject abnormally low tenders under certain circumstances that were not there before.
Round-up of Sessions From the Early Career Procurement Researcher Event
We have featured a number of full articles on the recent early career procurement researcher event in London, organised by Dr Pedro Telles. This is a roundup of the remaining sessions in brief. They include:
Competing anti-corruption strategies: organisational and contractual models
Ineffective contracts under the Pub Contracts Regs 2015
Applications of Nudging in public procurement
Termination of a public contract - lifting the veil on Article 73 of Directive 2014/24/EU
The rules on performance of the concession contract under the 2014 Concessions Directive
Integrating Human Rights into public procurement
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