Public Bidding Research Articles

Data Science in Promoting the Participation of SMEs in Public Biddings in Santa Catarina State, Brazil: The Case of BIEL

This paper addresses public bidding from the perspective of developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It aims to present a prototype, BIEL, to make it easier for suppliers to locate notices to participate in, increasing their competitiveness and access to public bidding. The context of this research is SMEs’ participation in public biddings in Santa Catarina (SC) State, Brazil, in which suppliers use the SC Purchasing Portal to seek bidding notices. Diagnosing the problem situation requires simplifying the search for notices and allowing suppliers to find those notices that correspond to the items they work with efficiently. The intervention consists of developing an application using web scraping techniques with a dashboard that allows suppliers to search for specific items and obtain a list of corresponding notices. The paper contributes to applying these technologies in public bidding, facilitating SMEs' access to bidding processes. The developed prototype demonstrates promising results, although some limitations can be overcome to improve search accuracy. Making the application's source code available in a public repository on GitHub also contributes to transparency and collaboration in developing technological solutions in the public sector.

A INTELIGÊNCIA ARTIFICIAL (IA) APLICADA EM PROPOSTAS DE LICITAÇÕES E CONTRATOS

This article deals with public bidding and contracts. The bidding process, regardless of the chosen modality, as established by law, aims to find the proposal considered most advantageous for the public administration, taking into account criteria and principles previously defined by the Federal Constitution of 1988 (CF/88), and which has as its historical landmark Law No. 8,666/93, now fully replaced by Law No. 14,133/21, which provides for the methods and methodologies for public agents to carry out contracts. The objective is to recognize the importance of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public bidding and contract proposals. As a methodology, this article involves qualitative, descriptive research, and a bibliographic review was chosen because it is a method that allows the use of previously published material on the subject, serving as a theoretical basis for the study, which sought publications in Scielo, Google Scholar, Revista de Administração de Empresas (RAE) and Revista de Administração Contemporânea (RAC). The present study presents as a result that AI is implemented to simulate human intelligence, capable of causing great impacts on public administration and its strategies. Currently, many types of AI software and applications are revolutionizing the workflows of government agencies, such as ChatGPT, machine learning, robotics, blockchain and algorithms. By implementing AI in bids and contracts, public administration will be able to track and monitor the following phases of the process, analyze and prepare proposals, prices, risks, detect fraud and ensure that everything occurs with greater transparency, obtaining, as a consequence, a reduction in the possibility of corruption.

GERENCIAMENTO DE RISCOS NO PLANEJAMENTO DAS LICITAÇÕES E CONTRATOS PÚBLICOS

Recent legislative changes in the area of public bidding and contracts, especially the guidelines implemented by Normative Instruction SEGES/MPDG Nº. 05/2017, established a new regime for contracting outsourced services in the Brazilian legal system. This new instrument aims to expand the dispute, in compliance with the principle of competitiveness, resulting in the expansion of the supplier market. IN Nº. 05/2017 establishes the rules and guidelines for the procedure for contracting services under the indirect execution regime within the scope of the Direct, autarchic and foundational Federal Public Administration. The regulation establishes innovative phases: Contracting Planning; Supplier Selection; and Contract Management. The Planning phase consists, according to the IN, of 3 stages: Preliminary Studies; Risk Management; and Terms of Reference or Basic Design. This paper aims to present a Risk Management Plan, developed in the planning phase of contracting a bidding process in the Electronic Auction for Price Registration modality. According to the PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition p. 395, project risk management includes the processes of conducting planning, identification, analysis, response planning, implementation of responses and monitoring of risks in a project. The objective is to maximize exposure to positive events and minimize exposure to negative events. In this context, through causes, consequences, categories and SWOT analysis, 75 risks were identified. Risk management processes were used in accordance with the PMBOK® doctrine and the Pareto Principle to prioritize 25 risks.

The Impact of Land Marketization on Urban Resilience: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities

Enhancing urban resilience (UR) is the pivotal strategy for achieving sustainable development. Given that land serves as the cornerstone of urban activities, it is imperative to examine the relationship between land marketization (LM) and urban resilience amidst the profound market-oriented land reforms in China. After establishing the conceptual framework of urban resilience, this paper assesses the temporal and spatial dynamics and empirically investigates the impact of land marketization on urban resilience, drawing on data from 282 cities across China, spanning from 2001 to 2021. Our findings reveal several important insights. First, due to its public bidding and competitive pricing mechanisms, land marketization is a powerful measure to foster urban resilience and enables cities to flexibly respond to various challenges and changes. Second, the indirect mechanisms, including optimizing resource allocation, upgrading industrial structure, and fostering technological innovation, are crucial pathways through which land marketization affects urban resilience. Finally, the impact of land marketization on urban resilience varies across regions and city size. Cities with better geographic locations, larger population sizes, and lower administrative levels are more significantly affected than others. These findings reveal the importance of land marketization in strengthening urban resilience, thereby providing theoretical guidance and empirical references for cities to enhance urban resilience through land marketization.

Research progress on the evaluation mechanism of scientific research teams in the digital economy era

PurposeIn today’s digital economy, it is very important to cultivate digital professionals with advanced interdisciplinary skills. The purpose of this paper is that universities play a vital role in this effort, and research teams need to use the synergistic effect of various educational methods to improve the quality and efficiency of personnel training. For these teams, a powerful evaluation mechanism is very important to improve their innovation ability and the overall level of talents they cultivate. The policy of “selecting the best through public bidding” not only meets the multi-dimensional evaluation needs of contemporary research, but also conforms to the current atmosphere of evaluating scientific and technological talents.Design/methodology/approachNonetheless, since its adoption, several challenges have emerged, including flawed project management systems, a mismatch between listed needs and actual core technological needs and a low rate of conversion of scientific achievements into practical outcomes. These issues are often traced back to overly simplistic evaluation methods for research teams. This paper reviews the literature on the “Open Bidding for Selecting the Best Candidates” policy and related evaluation mechanisms for research teams, identifying methodological shortcomings, a gap in exploring team collaboration and an oversight in team selection criteria.FindingsIt proposes a theoretical framework for the evaluation and selection mechanisms of research teams under the “Open Bidding for Selecting the Best Candidates” model, offering a solid foundation for further in-depth studies in this area.Originality/valueResearch progress on the Evaluation Mechanism of Scientific Research Teams in the Digital Economy Era from the Perspective of “Open Bidding for Selecting the Best Candidates.”

Law on Bidding in Capital Construction: Current Status of Regulations, Limitations and Proposed Solutions

Bidding is part of procurement activities between businesses, between businesses and state agencies. This is a form of civilized competition in the market economy, a special transaction method for large-scale transactions that require efficiency and transparency. The nature of bidding is a form of civilized competition in a market economy. Bidding activities are carried out in many fields such as construction, equipment procurement, project implementation, etc. Therefore, all professional businesses, whether Vietnam or foreign, no matter what field, any model, if it has enough capacity, cannot be ignored in bidding. Laws on bidding in the field of capital construction play an important role in managing and regulating bidding activities in the construction industry. Currently, Vietnam law has documents regulating public procurement such as Bidding Law 2013 effective from July 1, 2014, Decree No. 63/2014/ND-CP stipulates detailed implementation of several articles of the Bidding Law on contractor selection, etc. Some issues related to the current status of provisions of Vietnam law on public bidding and procurement activities are the selection of bidding form, bidding process, healthy competition, openness, and transparency in public bidding activities. This study analyzes the regulations and limitations of the law on bidding in the field of capital construction, thereby proposing solutions to improve the law on this issue.

Exploring Irregularities in Brazilian Public Bids: An In-depth Analysis on Small Companies

In Brazil, bidding processes constitute the main method through which the Public Administration acquires goods and services, and they aim to select the best proposal between several bidding companies. Analyzing public bids can reveal several negotiating characteristics between companies and the public sector, including alerts of fraudulent activities involving such businesses. This article presents two approaches for detecting irregularities within small companies using data extracted from public bids in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. For each approach, we perform exploratory and geospatial analysis to better understand specific characteristics of the companies with irregularity alerts. Furthermore, we execute a network analysis to examine the underlying connections between such companies. Our findings reveal the efficacy of both approaches in indicating small companies that may be involved in fraudulent activities. Our methodology and results represent a significant advance for the public sector as they have the potential to enhance mechanisms for overseeing and preventing fraud within bidding processes.

PLUS: A Semi-automated Pipeline for Fraud Detection in Public Bids

The diversity of sources and formats of public bidding documents makes collecting, processing, and organizing such documents challenging from the point of view of data analysis. Thus, the development of approaches to deal with such data is relevant since the analysis of them allows to expand of the inclusion of people as they have more access to public decisions and expenditures, increase transparency in the public sector, and give citizens a greater sense of responsibility for having different points of view on the government’s performance in meeting its public policy goals. In this context, we propose PLUS, a semi-automated pipeline for fraud detection in public bids. PLUS comprises a heuristic meta-classifier for bidding documents and a data quality module. Both modules present promising results after a proof of concept, reinforcing the relevance of PLUS for automating the bidding process investigation. Then, we present two applications of PLUS on real-world data: the construction of audit trails for fraud detection and a price database for overpricing detection. Such applications evidence a significant reduction of specialists’ work searching for irregularities in public bids.

Introduction to the Issue on Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector: Risks and Benefits of AI for Governments

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly adopted by public sector organizations to provide better public services and to transform their internal processes. AI is now considered a key enabler for digital innovation and transformation in the public sector. However, AI is still relatively a new research area in the field of digital government. The term, AI, captures a wide range of technologies, techniques, and tools such as machine/deep learning, natural language processing, robotics, computer vision, and more recently Generative AI. While these AI technologies afford different applications and benefits in the government context, they also create social, ethical, and legal challenges. These challenges require solutions combining both technical (e.g., data and algorithmic solutions to minimize bias) and institutional (e.g., governance structures and processes) mechanisms. The special issue is a collection of articles that contribute to a better understanding of the issues associated with AI deployment in different areas of government operations. They cover AI applications in the areas of emergency response, policy analysis, public bids, and citizen participation. The contributions also address the challenge of realizing a legal transparency regime for AI in government and the effect of AI in bureaucratic decision-making.

Обеспечительные меры при проведении торгов в банкротстве

In Russia the number of bankruptcy cases remains at a consistently high level, while the vast majority of them are of a liquidation nature. Debtors’ property is massively sold at public bidding, the results of which are very difficult to challenge. So there is a need to use operational legal remedy — interim measures. Interim measures in bankruptcy cases are needed even more than in other cases, because they help to balance the many conflicting interests. The article contains analysis of measures that are applied by the antimonopoly authority and the court during bidding in bankruptcy. Also the author considers interim measures, which are provided during challenging bidding and distributing money received as a result of the sale of collateral. In addition, the article describes the consequences of a violation by the bankruptcy manager of interim measures and the possibility of compensation for losses caused by interim measures during bidding in bankruptcy. The author concludes that the skepticism of the legal community regarding the providing of interim measures during public bidding in bankruptcy cases is exaggerated, the courts are ready to apply them.

Bids in The Municipality of Teófilo Otoni/Mg: Modalities and The Existence of Sustainability Criteria

Objective: The article aims to analyze the bidding modalities and the existence of sustainability criteria in the bidding notices of the municipality of Teófilo Otoni/MG based on the AGU's National Guide to Sustainable Contracting. Theoretical background: In order to respond to society's demands, the Public Administration needs to use goods and services supplied by third parties selected through a formal administrative procedure called bidding, which must include socio-economic sustainability criteria so that public purchases contribute to sustainable national development. Method: An exploratory and descriptive study was carried out, based on current legislation, recent articles and doctrine on the subject, as well as on the municipality's electronic portal, where 154 processes for contracting goods and services were found for the year 2021. Results and conclusion: It was found that the municipality needs to adhere to greater specifications for the objects it bids for, especially with regard to certifications from competent bodies, in order to ensure sustainability in its purchases. Research implications: The correlation between public procurement, bidding and sustainability presented in the research is of paramount importance in order to assess how the Public Administration can use its purchasing power to collaborate with sustainable national development. Originality/value: The study is original and provides the academic community with a local examination that better reflects the reality in the municipality surveyed in terms of the actions of government management in relation to sustainability based on its purchasing processes.

An exploratory study of the concept of social procurement in the construction industry in Botswana: contractor's perspective

PurposeGovernments worldwide seek to optimize value in public project bids. Social procurement (SP) has become a global tool for achieving project goals. The purpose of this study is to assess the understanding of SP among contractors and identify its drivers to optimize the value associated with public projects.Design/methodology/approachA total of 15 major contractors were interviewed to obtain their views on SP, appreciate their current practices and identify the main drivers of SP in projects. A semistructured interview was used to gather relevant data. Neo-institutional theory is the lens of the study used to provide the focus of the research. The collected data were analyzed using the thematic data analysis technique.FindingsThe study found that SP is understood as corporate social responsibility and is not handled in a structured manner guided by policies or clearly defined procedures. Additionally, research has shown that compliance requirements, rather than value and goodwill, are the main inspiration for SP practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe study’s limitation is the fact that it was conducted in the context of Botswana and only used the interview technique as the solo data collection method. The other limitation is the lack of empirical literature on SP concerning the lack of SP policy in Botswana.Originality/valueThis study raises awareness of the concept of SP among contractors in Botswana and eases its implementation within the industry.

Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems: the Case of Public Procurement Bid Disputes Management in KenyaP.

Purpose: This study sought to assess the efficacy of bid disputes management mechanism in Kenya. Theoretical Framework: Transparency in public procurement proceedings is a concern for most stakeholders. Allowing aggrieved bidders to challenge decisions of procuring entities is considered a critical development in the space of public procurement. The effectiveness and efficiency of bid disputes management mechanism should therefore be a concern for procuring entities, bidders, and development partners especially. This aspect is yet to be explored extensively in Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: The Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) as propagated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) helps evaluate the quality of public procurement systems and subsequently strategize on necessary reforms. This study applied MAPS to assess the efficacy of the bid disputes management mechanism in Kenya. Findings: It was established that overall, the public procurement bid dispute management mechanism in Kenya was effective and efficient. However, shortcomings were noted concerning resourcing of Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), unaffordable filing fees and accessibility of comprehensive, simple, and clear information on filing procedures. Research, Practical and Social Implications: The findings of this study offer policy recommendations that will help promote effective and efficient management of public procurement bid disputes. Originality/Value: The results of this study contribute to theory, practice and literature in the field of public procurement which is less researched in the Eastern Africa Region. The findings of the study can be replicated in countries that have based their procurement reforms on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Public Procurement. It is to be appreciated that application of MAPS indicators allows for subjective judgments by the assessor.

Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems: the Case of Public Procurement Bid Disputes Management in KenyaP.

Purpose: This study sought to assess the efficacy of bid disputes management mechanism in Kenya. Theoretical Framework: Transparency in public procurement proceedings is a concern for most stakeholders. Allowing aggrieved bidders to challenge decisions of procuring entities is considered a critical development in the space of public procurement. The effectiveness and efficiency of bid disputes management mechanism should therefore be a concern for procuring entities, bidders, and development partners especially. This aspect is yet to be explored extensively in Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: The Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS) as propagated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) helps evaluate the quality of public procurement systems and subsequently strategize on necessary reforms. This study applied MAPS to assess the efficacy of the bid disputes management mechanism in Kenya. Findings: It was established that overall, the public procurement bid dispute management mechanism in Kenya was effective and efficient. However, shortcomings were noted concerning resourcing of Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), unaffordable filing fees and accessibility of comprehensive, simple, and clear information on filing procedures. Research, Practical and Social Implications: The findings of this study offer policy recommendations that will help promote effective and efficient management of public procurement bid disputes. Originality/Value: The results of this study contribute to theory, practice and literature in the field of public procurement which is less researched in the Eastern Africa Region. The findings of the study can be replicated in countries that have based their procurement reforms on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Public Procurement. It is to be appreciated that application of MAPS indicators allows for subjective judgments by the assessor.

Overpricing Analysis in Brazilian Public Bidding Items

Analyzing overpricing in public bidding items is essential for government agencies to detect signs of fraud in acquiring public goods and services. In this context, this paper presents two main contributions: a methodology for processing and standardizing bid item descriptions and a statistical approach for overpricing detection using the interquartile range. We evaluated a comparative analysis of three distinct grouping strategies, each emphasizing different facets of the item description standardization process. Furthermore, to gauge the efficacy of both proposed approaches, we leveraged a ground-truth dataset for a thorough evaluation containing quantitative and qualitative analyses. Overall, our findings suggest that the evaluated strategies are promising for identifying potential irregularities within public bidding processes.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors versus chemotherapy as second-line therapy for advanced oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and economic evaluation.

Recently, several novel programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors have been approved for second-line treating advanced or metastatic oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), including camrelizumab, nivolumab, pembrolizumab, sintilimab and tislelizumab. However, the optimal treatment regimen remained ambiguous. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy, safety and economy of available PD-1 inhibitors to determine the optimal treatment from the Chinese healthcare system perspective. A systematic review and economic evaluation. A systematic review was undertaken utilizing PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase and Scopus databases to identify eligible studies until 31 August 2023. Primary outcomes were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and adverse events (AEs). We also developed a partitioned survival model at 3-week intervals based on five clinical trials to predict long-term costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for various treatment options. Direct medical costs and utility values were obtained from public drug bidding databases, clinical trials or published literature. The parameter uncertainties within the model were determined via one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Five randomized controlled trials involving 2837 patients were included in the analysis. Compared with other treatments examined, camrelizumab provided the best PFS benefits [hazard ratio (HR): 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.56-0.86], and pembrolizumab provided the best OS benefits (HR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.37-0.82). Nivolumab caused a relatively lower incidence of treatment-related AEs (HR: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.05-0.20) and grade 3-5 AEs (HR: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.08-0.21) than other immunotherapy regimens. In the economic evaluation, average 10-year costs ranged from $5,433.86 (chemotherapy) to $50,617.95 (nivolumab) and mean QALYs ranged from 0.55 (chemotherapy) to 0.82 (camrelizumab). Pembrolizumab was eliminated because of dominance. Of the remaining strategies, when the willingness-to-pay thresholds were 1, 2 and 3 times GDP per capita in 2022, sintilimab, tislelizumab and camrelizumab were the most cost-effective treatment options, respectively. Sintilimab might be the optimal treatment alternative for second-line therapy of advanced OSCC in China, followed by tislelizumab and camrelizumab. This study has been registered on the PROSPERO database with the registration number CRD42023495204.

Diversity, equality, and inclusion: A case for public procurement bid disputes management in an emerging market

Diversity, equality, and inclusion: A case for public procurement bid disputes management in an emerging market

Viability of renewable energy integration in isolated systems in Brazil – A case study at Trindade Island (Espírito Santo, Brazil)

In a partnership between the Brazilian Navy and a Public University a renewable energy matrix for the uttermost Brazilian isolated systems was developed, focused in integrating renewables and storage systems on Trindade Island (1100 km from the coast of Vitória city, Espírito Santo State), freeware and open-source database for oceanographic and climate stations were used. Presently the demand is supported by diesel generators (up to 60 k liters/year). Four options were analyzed: wind associated with existing diesel plant, solar with batteries, wind with reverse hydro storage system and photovoltaic with reverse hydro storage system. The photovoltaic with hydro scenario was unfeasible mainly due environmental aspects. Wind associated with the existing diesel generation, due to lower impact and the use of current generators as a backup system was considered the best option, but the other two were also economically feasible and offer a 100% renewable energy solution. The location of the reverse hydro reservoir was a critical issue and thus needs on-site evaluation. The successful partnership between two federal government institutions, possible to be replicated for other Navy locations, proved to be a feasible solution for future public bidding process.

Assessing Data Quality Inconsistencies in Brazilian Governmental Data

In recent years, vast volumes of data are constantly being made available on the Web, and they have been increasingly used as decision support in different contexts. However, for these decisions to be more assertive and reliable, it is necessary to ensure data quality. Although there are several definitions for this area, it is a consensus that data quality is always associated with a specific context. This work aims to analyze data quality in a data warehouse with governmental information of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. We first present a brief comparison of eight open-source data quality tools and then choose the Great Expectations tool for analyzing such data in two real applications: public bids and public expenditure. Our analyses show that the chosen tool has relevant characteristics to generate good data quality indicators to reveal data quality issues that may directly impact the construction of final applications using such data.

A risk identification model for ICT supply chain based on network embedding and text encoding

Public bidding for the information and communication technology (ICT) products offers an external regulatory perspective to identify endogenous risks of ICT supply chain. Owing to the multi-level outsourcing, the modeling methods of the first-order topological similarity are prone to misjudgment. Moreover, only using basic structural attributes (such as enterprise type, registered capital, etc.) is difficult to accurately quantify the enterprise' supply capacity, resulting in the models cannot identify the risky nodes with insufficient supply capacity. In this work, a risk identification Model for ICT supply chain based on Network Embedding and Text Encoding (NETEM) is proposed. In addition to the basic business features of enterprises, the DeepWalk is utilized to obtain the high-order topological representation of the ICT supply chain. Meanwhile, the TextCNN combined with keyword sequence extraction is utilized to supplement text semantic information, and excavate the association between business scope and supply capacity of enterprises. Finally, the basic business features, high-level topological features and text semantic features are spliced to obtain the final enterprise node representation vector, then the node risk classification model is trained. In addition, an ontology is developed for ICT supply chain integration and risk knowledge reuse. The experimental results show that NETEM improves the F1 value of the optimal baseline algorithm by 7.3% on the ICT risk identification data set, and the case study in financial industry demonstrates that the model can be practically applied to identify the risk of supply interruption.