David Drabkin, Daniel Schoeni and Christopher Yukins spoke at the “Upphandlings-Konferensen” (“Public Procurement Conference”) held in Stockholm on April 25-26, 2024. The conference was very kindly hosted by Professor Andrea Sundstrand of Stockholm University.
David Drabkin
Dave Drabkin and Chris Yukins’ presentation, drawing on their report on debarment for the Acquisition Innovation Research Center, addressed convergence of the contractor exclusion/debarment systems in the United States and the European Union. A recent decision by the Court of Justice for the European Union, Infraestruturas de Portugal SA, explained that the EU Public Procurement Directive should be read to mean that procuring agencies in the EU have clear first authority to handle vendor exclusions and to assess vendors’ misconduct and remedial measures — from the U.S. perspective, a critical step in building effective risk-based debarment regimes in Europe to allow agencies to manage supply chain risk. (For background on the Infraestruturas decision, see Adrian Brown‘s recent piece in the Public Procurement Law Review and Albert Sanchez-Graell’s insightful analysis.)
Daniel Schoeni
Daniel Schoeni’s presentation — which was very well-received by the assembly of Swedish procurement attorneys — reviewed the parallels between the EU and the U.S. systems. Drawing on his PhD thesis at the University of Nottingham, Dan Schoeni explained that while the legal frameworks in the U.S. and the EU are remarkably similar, their foundations and implementations vary widely because of their different histories, politics and perspectives.
On November 3, 2022 panelists joined with Professor Geo Quinot and Professor Sope Williams from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, for a very interesting discussion of public procurement and international trade across the African continent.
Jessica Tillipman, Assistant Dean for Government Procurement Law Studies & Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington University Law School
Sope Williams-Elegbe, Professor and Head of Department of Mercantile Law, and Deputy Director of the African Procurement Law Unit, Stellenbosch University
Christopher Yukins, Lynn David Research Professor in Government Procurement Law, George Washington University Law School
Sue Arrowsmith, Constructing Rules on Exclusions (Debarment) Under a Post-Brexit Regime on Public Procurement: A Preliminary Analysis (July 24, 2020), https://ssrn.com/abstract=3659909
Alison Jones, Combatting Corruption and Collusion in UK Public Procurement: Proposals for Post-Brexit Reform, 84 Modern L. Rev. 667 (July 2021), https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12626
John Pachter, Christopher Yukins & Jessica Tillipman, U.S. Debarment: An Introduction (discussion draft 24 February 2019), published in Cambridge Handbook of Compliance (Cambridge University Press, Daniel Sokol & Benjamin van Rooij eds.).
Christopher Yukins & Michal Kania, Suspension and Debarment in the U.S. Government: Comparative Lessons for the EU’s Next Steps in Procurement, 19-2 UrT 47 (2019), https://ssrn.com/abstract=3422499
Join GW Law for another free hourlong webinar, on President Donald Trump’s abrupt removal of four inspectors general and his announcement that a fifth will be dismissed shortly. In the last few months Trump has:
Fired Michael Atkinson, inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community, who passed forward to Congress the whistleblower complaint regarding Ukraine that helped lead to Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives.
Removed Glenn Fine, acting inspector general of the Department of Defense, who was slated to chair the federal panel Congress created to oversee the Trump administration’s management of the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.
OustedChristi Grimm as head of the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), after she published a report critical of the Trump administration’s preparations for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notified Congress on Friday, May 15, 2020 that Steve Linick, Inspector General of the State Department, will be fired effective June 15, 2020 (after the statutory 30-day notice period), after Linick reportedly launched an inquiry into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to a statement issued by the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep. Eliot Engel.
On the same day, removedMitch Behm, the acting Inspector General at the Department of Transportation, nominated Justice Department attorney Eric Soskin to be the permanent Inspector General, and designated Howard “Skip” Elliott as the Department’s Acting Inspector General. House Democrats had earlier requested an investigation into alleged favoritism shown by DOT in its dealings with the husband of Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is seeking reelection. When acting inspector general Mitch Behm was replaced, Democrats voiced concern that his removal was prompted by the requested investigation involving Secretary Chao.
An expert panel will discuss these actions against the inspectors general, which many have criticized as a collapse of the rule of law in Washington, opening the door to corruption in this and future administrations.
The panel will be moderated by Christopher Yukins, who teaches on anti-corruption in the Government Procurement Program at The George Washington University Law School, joined by:
Lisa Rein
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post will discuss President Trump’s recent actions against inspectors general across the federal government.
Jessica Tillipman teaches anti-corruption and government ethics law at The George Washington University Law School. She will discuss the role of inspectors general in the U.S. government under the Inspector General Act of 1978, and the balance that the Act draws between the power of the President and the independence of the inspectors general.
Clark Ervin
Clark Ervin, a partner at the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs who served as inspector general at three federal agencies during the administration of President George W. Bush, will discuss the role and independence of inspectors general historically, from the perspective of a former inspector general.
Noah Bookbinder
Noah Bookbinder is Executive Director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and previously served as an attorney in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. He will discuss the pattern of Trump administration moves against inspectors general, the implications for potential corruption, and possible pathways to reform.
The webinar “Trump’s Attacks on the Inspectors General” had over 200 registrants from five continents
A new threat has emerged in the pandemic: fraud in the supply chain for critical COVID-19 supplies. Governments the world over are fighting back against price gouging and defective supplies. What tools are available, and will they work? Join a free one-hour webinar with GW Law, as experts discuss these critical global developments in anti-corruption and procurement.
Moderators: Christopher Yukins, GW Law School (Washington); Jean-Bernard Auby (Professor emeritus, Sciences Po Law School (Paris)); Gabriella Racca (University of Turin); Laurence Folliot Lalliot (University of Paris Nanterre (joining from Dakar))
Jessica Tillipman, GWU Law School – Co-chair, ABA SIL Anti-Corruption Committee
On February 13, 2020, at 12:00 noon ET, the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of International Law (SIL) Anti-Corruption Committee will join with the ABA Public Contract Law Section (PCLS) Suspension and Debarment Committee, for an informal lunchtime session on developments in international debarment. The session will be moderated by Assistant Dean Jessica Tillipman, George Washington University Law School, Washington DC.
Christopher Yukins, George Washington University Law School (who co-teaches courses on anti-corruption with Dean Tillipman), will discuss emerging international models for debarment, and the impact that new electronic marketplaces may have on debarment globally. With regard to the U.S. experience, he has drafted a book chapter with John Pachter and Jessica Tillipman, for a forthcoming book on compliance by Cambridge University Press. Professor Yukins has also co-written a piece with Professor Michal Kania (U. Silesia – Katowice), comparing debarment in the United States and the European Union.
Pascal Friton, a partner in the BLOMSTEIN firm, Berlin, will discuss how the European Union’s member states are addressing exclusion and debarment, drawing on a piece he presented at the Thomson Reuters Government Contracts Year in Review in February 2019. He also will be speaking on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at this year’s Year in Review conference.
Collin Swan, World Bank
Collin Swan, of the World Bank’s Office of Suspension & Debarment, will discuss his office’s debarment survey and the office’s ongoing research into other debarment systems (beyond the United States and the World Bank). See his FCPA Blog post on the survey.
Grace Sullivan, a third-year student at the George Washington University Law School, recently won first prize in the Public Contract Law Journal annual writing contest for her note (which was also accepted for publication in the Journal). Her note analyzes three case studies of foreign contractors debarred by the U.S. government: Chinese telecommunications giants ZTE and Huawei, and Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. Ms. Sullivan will be presenting on her note at the March 2020 ABA PCLS Federal Procurement Institute in Annapolis, MD.
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Debarment – the exclusion of a firm or individual from working with a government – allows governments to protect themselves from the reputational and performance risks posed by unqualified firms and individuals. As a March 2019 conference at King’s College, London made clear, governments the world over are reforming their debarment systems, though often in strikingly different ways. The U.S. government is now moving to reform its debarment system, by more closely aligning the rules that govern debarments for grants and contracts. The rules would be revised “to improve consistency between the procurement and non-procurement procedures on suspension and debarment, based on recommendations of the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee,” under a pending Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) reform case No. 2019-015. Many have long argued for this reform, and a 2017 Public Contract Law Journal article by Robert Meunier and Trevor Nelson described the issue in detail. A report on the pending FAR case is currently due in January 2020, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget anticipates that a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be published in February 2020. We will be tracking this issue closely in a special short seminar that George Washington University Law School offers online, on suspension and debarment.
On October 28, 2019, a training session was held in Tbilisi, Georgia on anti-corruption efforts. The session was convened by the European Union’s “twinning” project, “Strengthening Public Procurement Practices in Georgia,” and moderated by Ms. Dana Mitae, Legal Advisor and Consultant for the Department for Consulting, e-Procurement and International Affairs, Federal Procurement Agency of Austria, Austria. The session built on Georgia’s Association Agreement with the European Union, which calls in Chapter 8 for Georgia to incorporate important elements of the European Union’s procurement directives into Georgia’s own laws and institutions. The session was opened by Mr. Levan Razmadze – Chairman of State Procurement Agency of Georgia, and outside experts included Prof. Christopher Yukins, George Washington University (USA), Mr. Mihai Dragutescu, President of the Senate for Administrative Cases (Romania), and Ms. Maja Kuhar, President of the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures, Zagreb (Croatia).
Mihai Dragutescu, President of the Senate for Administrative Cases (Romania)
