United Nations – Global Challenges & Next Steps in Procurement Law
Thursday, February 9, 2023 – 11 am-noon ET
GW Law School – 2000 H Street NW, WashINGTON – Room: Stuart HALL 101 (Also can be accessed at 2013 G Street)
Discovering the United Nations system. From addressing global challenges to next steps in procurement reform. A discussion with the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN.
RSVP – Please contact Antoni Davis at antoni.davis@us.dlapiper.com with questions.
UNCITRAL Days in Africa Workshop on Public Procurement Law Harmonisation
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.
Developments in Defense Procurement Law – Webinar
ABA PCLS Grant Law Committee Meeting (Online): Build America Buy America Act — Stringent New Domestic Sourcing Requirements – September 13, 2022
Webinar: New Protectionism in International Public Procurement
GW Law Summer Series: State Bid Protests
Meeting with Principal Investigators on Congressionally Commissioned Study on Bid Protests at the Department of Defense
Tuesday, April 19, 12 noon – online
In the conference report which accompanied section 886 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, Congress called for the Defense Department to launch a new study of bid protests, to follow up on an earlier report by the RAND Corporation. Congress called for a new study to address:
- The rate at which protestors are awarded the contract that was the subject of the bid protest;
- The time it takes the Defense Department to implement corrective actions after a ruling or decision, the percentage of those corrective actions that are subsequently protested, and the outcomes of those protests;
- Analysis of the time spent at each phase of the procurement process attempting to prevent a protest, addressing a protest, or taking corrective action in response to a protest, including the efficacy of any actions attempted to prevent the occurrence of a protest; and
- Analysis of the number and disposition of protests filed within the Defense Department.
The conferees also emphasized “the potential benefits of a robust agency-level bid protest process.” The conferees further said that the study “should review existing law, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and agency policies and procedures,” and should “solicit input from across the DOD and industry stakeholders.”
Further information on the study is available at https://publicprocurementinternational.com/congressionally-commissioned-bid-protest-study/.
The first of several public meetings will be held on the study on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 12:00 – 1:30 Eastern. Principal investigators David Drabkin and Christopher Yukins will discuss initial steps from the study, and will seek input on the questions posed by Congress, above. The meeting will be virtual and will not be recorded, and attendance is limited.
King’s College, London / GW Law Symposium: Anti-Corruption and the New UK Procurement Rules
Live and Online – Free
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 – 14:00-17:00 UK
Streaming Online: 9:00-12:00 Eastern US / 15:00-18:00 CET
Join us at King’s College London for a discussion of proposed anti-corruption measures in the United Kingdom’s new procurement regime, post-Brexit.
Topics
- Update on the current proposals
- Remedies — new approaches to bid challenges
- Transparency
- Crisis procurement
- Exclusion and debarment
- Australia-UK free trade agreement
Moderator
- Michael Bowsher QC, Monckton Chambers & Visiting Professor, King’s College London
Panelists
- Sue Hawley, Executive Director, Spotlight on Corruption
- Gavin Hayman, Executive Director, Open Contracting Partnership
- Albert Sanchez-Graells, Professor of Economic Law, University of Bristol Law School
- 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
Registration is for the online session; health conditions permitting, a limited number of spaces for the in-person session will be made available
Resources
Official
UK Cabinet Office, Transforming Public Procurement (Dec. 2020) (the “Green Paper, calling for public consultation)
UK Cabinet Office, Transforming Government Procurement: Government Response to Consultation (Dec. 2021)
The Queen’s Speech (May 10, 2022) (announcing new legislation)
UK Government resource page on new procurement legislation.
UK Government Cost Impact Assessment
House of Lords — Collected Materials on Bill
House of Lords — Summary of the Procurement Bill (May 20, 2022)
House of Lords Debate (Second Reading of the Bill) (May 25, 2022)
Academic/COMMENTARY
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
Nigel Boardman, Review of Government Procurement in the COVID-19 Pandemic (May 2021) (independent report published by UK Cabinet Office)
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
Albert Sanchez-Graells, UK Procurement Law Reform: Queen’s Speech Update (May 10, 2022).
Albert Sanchez-Graells, Initial comments on the UK’s Procurement Bill: A lukewarm assessment (May 2021)
Jessica Tillipman & Samantha Block, Canada’s Integrity Regime: The Corporate Grim Reaper, 53 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 475 (2022), https://ssrn.com/abstract=4081297
King’s College, London / GW Law on Exclusion and Debarment (March 2019)
Open Contracting Partnership, Mythbusting Confidentiality in Public Contracting
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.).
UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, Our Ten-Point Improvement Plan for the UK Procurement Bill (May 2021)
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