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Browsing All Posts filed under »Public Sector Procurement«
With postmaster general Patrick R. Donahoe’s somewhat desperate plea to congress to bail out the listing and outdated agency, what impact does the USPS’ precarious financial situation have on supplier relations?
September 5, 2011
The United States Postal Service is a federal agency, like the other 125 agencies that make up the federal government; so by definition it operates at a deficit. It is partially funded by proceeds from the sale of mail delivery and associated services but it is also funded in the millions through the OMB for […]
Procurement Contests Review 3-Part Series
September 5, 2011
Just a quick not to my readers . . . For those who may have missed one of the posts in last week’s 3-Part Procurement Contests Review series, I have created a dedicated page that will provide you with easy access to each post as well as provide you with a venue through which you […]
Government procurement contests (Part 3): A question of (IP) ownership
September 1, 2011
NOTE: The following is an article that was originally published on August 7th, 2008 under the heading Finding the hidden Intellectual Property (IP) value in procurement contracts. While it focused on the unique services of the Future Path organization, its resonance relative to the emergence of procurement contests – especially within the public sector, is […]
Government procurement contests (Part 2): When innovative ideas collide . . .
August 31, 2011
Gèrard Quenneville, an Aylmer engineer who is acting as a liaison between the company and the city on the file, says, “The proposal deserved to be studied in depth.” Mr. Quenville notes Alpine Energy had been working for four years on the proposal. Both Mr. Quenville and Mr. Carrière met with Mayor Marc Bureau the […]
Are procurement contests just another way for government to pass the innovation buck to a preferred outside vendor?
August 30, 2011
The basic idea of a procurement contest — sometimes called a prize or challenge — is to set out a performance requirement for a capability that needs development work and offer a prize, usually money, for the first or best entity to produce a product or capability meeting the requirement. from the Contracting Education Academy […]
Losing Vendor Litigation (Part 3): “Champagne wishes and caviar dreams.”
August 9, 2011
Initially Champagne was dismissed, not for stealing money, but for approving transactions for which he had no authority. But he knew that as soon as he was out of the building, the audits would turn up trouble. Champagne flew to the Turks to be with his family, and to wait for the mess to hit […]
Losing Vendor Litigation (Part 2): Vendor Side Origins?
August 8, 2011
There is one salient rule for vendors considering the pursuit of government contracts, just one rule . . . people buy from whom they know, like and trust! from April 2010 Washington Keynote address I remember when I gave the above referenced keynote, I was just coming to the end of a special 7-Part Seven […]
Sorry about that chief: The old secret uncompetitive bid process involving a foreign vendor trick
August 5, 2011
“Our problem is they’ve given a foreign company, in a secret uncompetitive process, 2,500 megawatts of installed capacity, a portion of the grid that’s larger than (the power from) Niagara Falls,” said Wilson. “Ontario families are tired of secret deals, they’re tired of skyrocketing hydro prices and they’re tired of Dalton McGuinty’s energy experiments.” from […]
Losing Vendor Litigation (Part 1): A Reversal of Fortune?
August 4, 2011
It has been noted that fiscal law is not about getting the mission accomplished or getting a good deal for the government. Fiscal law is only about Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch. Thus, fiscal law frequently prevents government agencies from signing an agreement that a commercial entity would not hesitate to execute. Thus, fiscal […]
Procurement Insights 
Fiscal realities and Government contracting (Part 2): Understanding the purchasing connection
September 8, 2011
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The drop in real estate values and its impact on property taxes is easy to envision. But that’s just part of the problem. Deeper seated is linkage between housing construction, and the many ways that home sales and building activity affect state and local government revenues. from the November 2010 Governing magazine article “The Housing […]