#procurement

#procurement

WASHINGTON  Ash Carter, who as defense secretary in the final two years of the Obama administration opened military combat jobs to women and ended a ban on transgender people serving in the military, has died at age 68.Carter died after suffering a heart attack on Monday evening, according a statement Tuesday from Douglas Elmendorf, dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School.

A German court on Tuesday convicted five men over the theft of 18th-century jewels worth more than 100 million euros from a Dresden museum in 2019.They were sentenced to prison sentences of between four years and four months and six years and three months, German news agency dpa reported.One defendant was acquitted.

UK architecture and engineering studio Atkins is the latest studio to have been officially announced as working on The Line megacity in Saudi Arabia.Atkins, which is part of conglomerate SNC-Lavalin, was officially announced as a delivery partner for The Line after signing a five-year contract."Intent is to radically transform the way major infrastructure projects are delivered"The architecture and engineering studio will provide project and construction management consultancy services that include the design, procurement and commissioning of the project.

The new Guardian revelations about Michelle Mone  claims that she and her children secretly received 29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers  go way beyond startling headlines.They also clearly highlight the conflicts of interest and failures of due diligence that lay behind the waste of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money, and a Tory VIP lane that was declared illegal by the high court earlier this year.

The suggestion that the Ferguson Marine ferries contract represented jobs for the boys is categorically untrue, Nicola Sturgeon insisted as she faced MSPs looking into the procurement of two overdue and over-budget vessels.The First Minister also denied that information has been deliberately withheld from the Holyrood committee investigating the Glen Sannox and the as-yet unnamed hull 802.

Ontario's electricity system operator is bringing seven new battery storage projects into the province's grid to support reliability and help eventually move away from natural gas.But in the meantime, the Independent Electricity System Operator also announced more natural gas generation, from expansions and upgrades at existing sites.

Two Toronto men are facing multiple charges after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say they carried out a "lengthy" investigation into a $300 million renovation project at a downtown Toronto hospital.The men, aged 50 and 58, have been charged with fraud over $5,000 and offering or receiving secret commissions.

Ontario's Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, shown here speaking to reporters in December 2020, is set to release her annual report on Wednesday.(Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press) Ontario's auditor general is set to release her annual report Wednesday, including audits on COVID-19-related contracts and procurement, as well as the province's vaccination program.

This blog aims to help Engineers, Engineering leaders, and Execs who want to coin a FinOps/ Cloud Economics practice facilitate their FinOps journey.You'll find the blueprint and roadmap of how we did this and cultivated a culture of cost awareness across engineering at a hypergrowth security startup with a small FinOps team and only six core objectives.

S adiq Khan has been accused of installing Ulez cameras and road signs by stealth in four Tory boroughs opposed to the expansion of the cleaner air zone.Residents in Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon have reported Ulez signs and numberplate-reading cameras popping up overnight without warning, according to a statement from the councils on Thursday.

C ars and buses could be allowed back across Hammersmith Bridge in 18 months' time, the Standard can reveal.Planning permission is being sought for a double-decker temporary truss to be placed at the historic site, so vehicles and pedestrians can cross the Thames while parts of the 135-year-old bridge are moved off site for refurbishment and restoration.

F irefighters in London will be the first in the country to be issued with body-worn cameras following a damning report which found institutional racism and misogyny within the London Fire Brigade.The report by former prosecutor Nazir Afzal, which included anonymous testimony from more than 2,000 staff members at the brigade, found shocking evidence of racist, homophobic and misogynistic bullying which left a clear trail of psychological harm.

Too many organisations are taking a reactive approach to procuring cyber security services and solutions, reaching for the phone only after a problem has arisen, and thus hindering the ability of security pros to demonstrate value and properly align with business outcomes, according to a study published today by WithSecure.

The British Army is no longer regarded as a top-level fighting force, a senior US general has reportedly told defence secretary Ben Wallace.Department sources have disclosed that cost-cutting measures have seen the armed force decline in the eyes of world leaders, Sky reported on Monday.Bottom line... it's an entire service unable to protect the UK and our allies for a decade, the source is quoted as saying.

The government has cancelled its plans to build a Brexit trade yacht with "immediate effect", the defence secretary has announced.Speaking in the Commons on Monday Ben Wallace said the competition to construct a national flagship had been "terminated".Mr Wallace told MPs the decision had been made so shipbuilders could instead focus on building a new vessel to defend undersea cables from attack.

It's pork barrel time again.The UK government has named a slew of tech organizations that made it onto a £2 billion framework agreement that allows them to compete for big data and analytics public sector contracts.The Cabinet Office-run Crown Commercial Service (CCS), which sets up procurement on behalf of government ministries and other public sector organizations, ran the process and awarded contracts to many of the usual suspects and some lesser known entities (see box).

A Minister of State at the Department of Communications has said there is "more than one risky app out there" but said Government advice for official mobile phones does not name specific companies.hinese-owned TikTok has come under fire in the US, Europe and Asia, where a growing number of governments have banned the app from devices used for official business over worries it poses risks to cybersecurity and data privacy or could be used to push pro-Beijing narratives and misinformation.

This article is part of a limited editorial series, called The 2023 Notebook, and is designed to be a guide to marketing and media buying in the new year.Explore the series here.It's not often a new revenue opportunity comes along for media agencies, as their traditional sources of income (commissions on planning and buying) dry up in the age of procurement.

The stock market may look dour right now, but there's a good reason to rejoice.This year's sharp decline has been broad based and caused the share prices of numerous companies to fall to multi-year lows.This means that the baby has essentially been thrown out with the bathwater, and good companies are also seeing their valuations pummeled without good reason.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Island communities feel aggrieved at the failure to deliver ferries which were promised years ago, Kate Forbes has said.The SNP leadership contender, who is the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said the situation around the long-delayed Ferguson Marine ferries is completely unacceptable.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Rishi Sunak has hailed the UK's global alliances as its greatest source of strength and security as he prepared to meet US President Joe Biden to flesh out a major defence deal.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Rishi Sunak oversaw wasteful government spending and departmental losses that cost the taxpayer up to 26.8 billion, Labour has said.The Opposition party compiled a dossier of the extensive waste under Mr Sunak during his time as Chancellor and as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2021-22 and 2019-20.

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Rishi Sunak has revealed an extra 5bn will be added to Britain's military budget over the next year two years, as the government sets out the latest defence and foreign policy review.

The results of our Grant Park Gateway survey are in, and readers have a lot of thoughts on the restaurants that should open there.City of Atlanta is finally moving forward with plans to fill the vacant Grant Park Gateway building on Boulevard with a restaurant.The city is seeking proposals through mid-March to place a restaurant in the space by the end of 2023, more than two years after construction on the building was completed.

Scottish shipyards need greater clarity from the UK Government over where contracts for new naval vessels will be placed in the coming decades, MPs have said.Members of the Scottish Affairs Committee made the plea as they challenged ministers to set out why a recent 1.6 billion contract for the construction of three naval support ships had gone to an international consortium which will see some of the building work take place in Spain.

Nicola Sturgeon is set to face questions from a committee of MSPs investigating the procurement of two ferries, which are both late and over budget.The Glen Sannox and as-yet-unnamed Hull 802 being built at Ferguson Marine are now due to be delivered in 2023 and early 2024, at a potential cost of more than 300 million  three times the initial 97 million contract.

(Image credit: MMD / PREVENT Waste Alliance)
Monitors are a problem.We need them for our daily work, and here at Creative Bloq we often review the latest screens designed for creatives.But historically they've been one of the worst offenders when it comes to unsustainable e-waste.Progress is being made to recycle more components from computers and peripherals, but the small circuit boards in LCD monitors usually contain burnt-in chemicals, including lead and mercury.

A high court judge has expressed her deep frustration at NHS delays and bureaucracy that mean a suicidal 12-year-old girl has been held on her own, in a locked, windowless room with no access to the outdoors for three weeks.In a hearing on Thursday, Mrs Justice Lieven told North Staffordshire combined healthcare NHS trust you are testing my patience, after she heard that a proposal to move Becky (not her real name), could not progress until a planning meeting that would not be held until next week, and that a move was not anticipated until 2 March.

Schools Boston school leaders may soon sign a new contract with a bus vendor that has struggled to get students to class by the first bell.The Massachusetts inspector general's office expressed serious concerns over the Boston Public School's bus vendor's ability to deliver students to class on time as the district is anticipated to re-sign the company despite longstanding issues with on-time arrivals.

Local "Americans who want to serve and can meet our standards should be afforded the opportunity to compete to do so."WASHINGTON (AP) - Ash Carter, who as defense secretary in the final two years of the Obama administration opened military combat jobs to women and ended a ban on transgender people serving in the military, has died at age 68.

Over the weekend, the cybercriminals behind the Play ransomware published data allegedly stolen from the City of Oakland last month.The cyberattack started on February 8 and was disclosed on February 10, when Oakland announced that it had taken systems offline to contain the incident, but that emergency services were not impacted.

President promises changes to government after reports of corruption at defence and infrastructure ministries.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will make changes to the government and security services as part of a renewed crackdown on corruption, nearly a year since Russia invaded the country.

Eight months after Russia captured Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to fall, Moscow's grip on the city appears to be slipping as many of those who have refused Russia's calls to evacuate anxiously wait for their city to be liberated, Pjotr Sauer writes.The occupied city's Russian administration earlier this month ordered an evacuation of its residents to Russian-controlled areas across the Dnieper River but many have decided to stay put.

Pfizer is one of two companies offering an updated COVID-19 vaccine booster for the BA.5 omicron subvariant this fall.The shots are currently paid for by the federal government and are available free of charge, regardless of a person's health insurance status.Now, in late October, some people on social media are claiming that Pfizer is planning to raise the cost of its COVID-19 shot by 400%.

US research agencies NASA and DARPA are teaming up to create a nuclear thermal rocket engine in hopes the tech will one day carry crewed missions to Mars.The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) is expected to prove nuclear thermal propulsion by 2027.DARPA has been working on an experimental spacecraft design for the project since 2021.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an emergency declaration aimed at dramatically speeding up services to the tens of thousands of people living in encampments and vehicles.The declaration started the clock: County officials with the Homeless Initiative now have two weeks to report to the board exactly what parts of the county bureaucracy can be scrapped.

The unique components behind big data can be challenging to administer and maintain.This policy offers guidelines to help businesses achieve maximum yield from their big data investments.From the policy: SUMMARY Companies have relied upon data for decades as a means to engage in business practices and achieve operational success, but the relatively new concept of "big data" has grown rapidly over the past few years.

Cycles of growth and retraction are enterprise mainstays and are especially apparent today.Another tradition is the continued investment to improve the systems and data that drive profits in business and foster supply chain intelligence.As part of a challenging economic environment to close in 2022, U.S. companies, as well as ones globally, are facing rising inflation, higher costs of goods and services, and raw material shortages.

The victims of anti-social behaviour could choose how offenders are punished under plans being pitched by Labour.The opposition has positioned itself as the party of law and order, with shadow justice secretary Steve Reed saying he will update Tony Blair's tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime slogan and put prevention at the heart of their approach.

Ministers have been warned not to delay the release of papers relating to a row over deals for coronavirus personal protective equipment (PPE).The Government has promised to release documents on the contracts awarded to PPE Medpro, a firm referred to minsters by Tory peer Baroness Mone.But health minister Will Quince told the Commons Public Accounts Committee that the disclosure may have to wait until a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation has concluded.

Hotel Valencia Santana Row is excited to announce the appointment of Martelle Lorenz as executive chef.Chef Lorenz will shape the offerings at Spanish-inspired eatery, Oveja Negra, Vbar, and rooftop bar Cielo, as well as in-room dining, banquets, and any additional culinary programs."We are thrilled to welcome Martelle to the Hotel Valencia Santana Row team," said Hotel Valencia Santana Row's food and beverage director, Juan Barba.

Michael Gove is facing mounting pressure to fully explain his role in the government's award of large PPE contracts to a company that was first recommended to him by the Tory peer Michelle Mone.Asked in an interview on Thursday how he responded to Lady Mone's approach in May 2020, Gove said he referred all offers of PPE to the appropriate civil service channels.

A Tory Brexiteer and former minister sent a less-than-subtle message in the Commons to Jeremy Hunt against turning back on Brexit.It comes after the Chancellor was forced to deny he was the source of suggestions that the Government was considering pursuing a Swiss-style relationship with the EU.Peter Bone told the Commons during a session of House business questions that Mr Hunt should lead a debate called Brexit a roaring success, no turning back.

A 250 million scheme to create a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia has been scrapped in response to a Whitehall spending squeeze and Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine.The national flagship plan was sunk by Rishi Sunak's administration as funding is prioritised on measures designed to bolster protection against Russia.

A 250 million scheme to create a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia has been scrapped as part of a squeeze on government spending.The national flagship plan was sunk by Rishi Sunak's administration as Whitehall braced for cuts in the November 17 autumn statement by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.The plan was championed by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, but has faced criticism from MPs at a time when there are other priorities for defence spending.

Dear Procurement, Sustainability and Marketing: You've passed each other in the hall (virtual or otherwise) from time to time, giving a head nod and mumbling a casual hey.But with the CEO's pronouncement that the company will limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and become net zero by the end of the decade, it's time you got to know each other better.

The Home Secretary has insisted that she never ignored legal advice or blocked plans to tackle overcrowding at a migrant holding centre.Suella Braverman said it was practically impossible to find more than 1,000 beds at short notice as she defended the decision to keep thousands of people at the Manston site in Kent.

Suella Braverman has come under fire after she claimed the UK was facing the "invasion of our southern coast" as she defended her handling of the Kent asylum centre crisis.The embattled home secretary also insisted she had never blocked the procurement of hotels to ease the pressure on the centre.

"In the case of Vifor International Ltd. v. CCI, we see the intersection of patent and antitrust laws in India...[and an upcoming decision should] explain how these laws can exist in tandem and provide relief to the aggrieved."Patent laws and antitrust laws (known as competition laws or anti-competitive laws in other jurisdictions), may seem antithetical to each other at first glance.

"Because our fair work standard will raise standards for all."On employment rights, Ms Rayner announced a "fair work standard", adding: "It will underpin a new fair work code for the public sector, guaranteeing fair conditions, job security, wellbeing, proper training, rights at work, and union access."We will also create a fair work gold standard to champion the very best of employers, and a Labour government will be on the side of the self-employed too.A "fair work gold standard" will champion employers providing a certain standard of conditions and underpin a new "fair work code for the public sector, guaranteeing fair conditions, job security, wellbeing, proper training, rights at work and union access", she said.