Aspects of International Public Procurement Regulation

The public procurement market is classified as one of the most important segments of the world economy with share of 7-18%in the world GDP.The importance of this segment leads to continuous liberalization.Despite the existing legislative framework,the share of cross-border public procurement remains limited due to several obstacles including discrimination in public procurement that was raised by governments as one of the non-tariff barriers to international trade.Surveys of the European Commission or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(EBRD)indicate that there are many other obstacles to entry to international public procurement markets.These obstacles are discussed in the first chapter of this article.The goal of this paper is to review aspects of international public procurement regulation and find ways of eliminating the obstacles through this regulation.Therefore,the second,third,and fourth chapters of the paper analyse the WTO Government Procurement Agreement(GPA),the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law(UNCITRAL)Model Law on Public Procurement,and the role of regional trade agreements.

Quality Assurance of Bread and Bakery Pastries in Public Institutions According to the Law on Public Procurement

Public institutions, such as kindergartens, are committed to ordering food according to the Slovenian Law on public procurement （ZJN-3）, which is compliant with EU legislation. There are many bread manufacturers in the market, therefore contracting authority has the challenging task to provide a diverse and high-quality bread and bakery pastries through the process of public procurement. Each buyer has the option of ordering food through the so-called ＂short chain＂, which allows the ordering of locally produced cereals, bread from the organic and integrated production. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia issued a ＂Guide to Quality Standards of Food in Public Ordering for Educational Institutions＂ which supports the ordering process. In addition to quality requirements, the buyer divides the tender documentation into several groups and subgroups （e.g. Bread, Bakery pastries and Bread of organic production）. The bakery industry is aware that in kindergartens high-quality bread and bakery pastries are required, therefore they already offer products with reduced salt, sugars, fats, products without trans-fatty acids and gluten. Taking into account the appropriate purchasing specifications and good knowledge of legislation, with respect to public procurement law-related orders, children in kindergartens can be provided with high-quality bread and bakery pastries.

An Assessment of Procurement Risks Management Systems in the Public Sector

Risk management in public procurement is a critical aspect that needs to be addressed in the public sector.Several studies have been conducted to understand the challenges and factors influencing risk management in public procurement.These studies have explored the importance of risk management principles,the role of political influence,and the need for effective risk assessment and anticipation.The research has also highlighted the need for specific risk management mechanisms and tools to be implemented in public procurement processes.Risk management reforms in the public sector are essential but often circumvented due to assorted reasons,such as political influence and the emergence of new risks.The research investigation employs a quantitative research design.A total of 380 questionnaires were recovered from respondents.The study showed that the public sector has a procurement risk management system that is effective,but there may be some areas for improvement in the prequalification process,onboarding process,and support provided to newly onboarded suppliers.Additionally,the public sector used some strategies to mitigate and control contract risks during the procurement process,but there were some areas for improvement in the review and lessons learned process,risk mitigation measures,contract monitoring and performance evaluation mechanisms,and communication and documentation process.Finally,the results suggest that there were constraints placed on the risk management strategies currently utilized by professionals working in the public sector.These constraints include insufficient support and buy-in from senior management and stakeholders,bureaucratic or administrative hurdles,inadequate policies and regulations,insufficient training and skill development opportunities,and insufficient resources.The study highlights the significance of tackling risk management in the realm of public procurement and offers valuable perspectives on avenues for enhancement,obstacles encountered by practitioners,and the necessity of thorough evaluation and revisions.Through the adoption of the suggestions originating from this study,governmental entities can improve their procurement risk management frameworks and guarantee improved adherence to risk management principles.

When the sum adds up:Using public procurement to avoid intersectoral cooperation barriers in lagging regions

This study examined the application of an instrument that supports intersectoral collaboration in innovation.Using the strategic action field(SAF)approach,we analyze a precommercial public procurement instrument developed in Andalusia(Spain).Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data,we shed light on the dynamics of collaboration between public and private innovation agents.We show how a change in dynamics can generate a reduction in barriers to intersectoral cooperation.This presents an opportunity to promote the transfer of knowledge and strengthen a strategic field of action,such as the agroindustry,which is the main source of income for several people in Andalusia,a European region that is developmentally lagging.

Green Wood Public Procurement Development in China

The green government(public) procurement system plays an important role in achieving the policy objective of energy saving and environmental protection,and promoting green technology progress in enterprises.The green government procurement starts comparatively late in China,and there are still a lot of problems in the legal system,procurement standards,organization and management system, information communication and monitoring evaluation mechanisms and so forth.With international experience as the refer...

Embedding Knowledge Management in Public Sector Procurement： Redesigning for the Knowledge Economy

There is a perception in the public, political, and trade discourse that private sector procurement performs ＂better＂ than does public sector procurement. This research considers whether this perception is justified. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for assessing issues that influence procurement performance. The framework takes into account the organization＇s business goals, its procurement principles, the design of its procurement capability, the intellectual capital or knowledge that is used to support procurement operations, and the use of knowledge management methods. To represent these factors, the framework adapts the conceptual framework proposed by McElroy （2002）, leverages Andriessen＇s （2005） characterization of intellectual capital, and adopts Bedford＇s （2012） description of the practice of knowledge management. The results, though preliminary and exploratory, suggest that factors which are more often practiced in the private sector than the public sector contribute to higher performance.

Comparing the Efficiency of Manual and Electronic Tender Document Preparation: Cost and Time Context

In Bangladesh, both manual and e-GP system is used to perform public procurement. Before tender publication, tender documents have to be prepared by the Procurement Entities (PEs). The problem is that the manual tendering system involves more cost and time in preparing tender documents. The study’s purpose is to compare now the efficiency of tender document preparation in the manual system with the e-GP system. This study tests the cost and time involved in tender document preparation, both manual and e-procurement tenders. Sample data was collected from the 11 RHD zones. Structured survey questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the PE officers of RHD. A hypothesis test was performed using the model of independent samples t-test. The test results indicated that e-Procurement tender document preparation costs and time were less than manual tendering. Academicians, researchers, PE officers, and policymakers will benefit from the study’s conclusions.

Tender evaluation through efficiency analysis for public construction contracts

Given the European Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU,policymakers have ordered the inclusion of various criteria,such as the price,life-cycle costs,environmental,and social aspects,in the evaluation of tenders for public construction projects.Consequently,the relevance of non-monetary award criteria has gained significant value.However,the established evaluation formulas,which are used to obtain the best value for money procurement,have resulted in legal disputes.The existing evaluation formulas exhibit mathematical weaknesses,wherein scoring indices do not express economic efficiency adequately.Thus,a conflict is observed between the political requirement of non-monetary award criteria and their evaluation by contracting authorities.To overcome such dilemma,an extensive literature review is conducted.Specifically,this study explores the essential problems of existing evaluation formulas and develops a more reliable method.The technique from the field of efficiency analysis,i.e.,Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA),is adopted in this study.For contract awarding,the DEA is extended by introducing a decision theoretical framework.For public procurement,the proposed method combines two advantages.First,the proposed method ensures the derivation of a robust tender ranking given that with respect to clients’preferences,irrelevant and insufficiently tailored tenders do not influence the scoring.Second,the proposed method supports the intention of policy makers to promote public goals,such as sustainable aspects.By disclosing the strengths and weaknesses of bidders with respect to their competitors,all bidders can obtain a precise overview of their performance regarding the award criteria.In sum,the proposed method allows a targeted improvement of certain criteria values in future tenders and consequently leads to an enhancement of public goals.

Construction engineering management culture shift: Is the lowest tender offer dead?

The procurement of public construction projects must walk a fine line between the corruption of state officials and collusion of contractors. The method of awarding projects to the lowest responsible tenderer was originally implemented to guard against corruption of state officials. However, an investigation of the construction industry in the Canadian province of Quebec showed that lowest-tender-offer procurement gave rise to collusion of companies tendering for the contracts. Alternatively, bestvalue procurement has been used for decades, but here problems arise owing to the necessity of subjective judging of measures other than price to compare bids, giving rise to time-and money-consuming protests. The paper proposes a compelling argument that the construction engineering management(CEM) culture should refocus its efforts on enhancing project cost certainty rather than merely searching for means to design a project in a manner that produces the lowest initial cost, and awards the construction to the lowest tender offer that focuses on cost savings during the project development and delivery process. The difference in the two approaches is subtle but extremely important. To make the transition, the engineering management tools must be advanced to the next level.This means that all project control tools for managing cost,schedule, and technical scope must be transformed from working in the deterministic mode to the stochastic mode,thus making the probability of completing the projectwithin or below its official budget the primary decision criterion. To do so, CEMs must accept that there is a benefit in paying more for an alternative that increases cost certainty for the entire project. The authors of this paper hope that it will provide the grist for a more general dialog across all industry sectors where engineering management is practiced.