This study investigated the current handling of furniture in Sweden's 21regional counties, focusing on circular strategies. The aim was to identifyobstacles and opportunities for improving sustainability through circularfurniture management. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combiningsurveys and focus group interviews with managers responsible for furniturestrategies and representatives from procurement organisations. The resultsrevealed a growing awareness and commitment to circularity, but alsochallenges such as a lack of clear responsibility, resource constraints, andknowledge gaps. The study also found that wood, as a durable and repairablematerial, could mitigate obstacles and enhance circular strategies. However,clearer definitions and sustainability criteria for wooden furniture inprocurement were needed. The study emphasised a multifaceted approach topromote circular furniture management, including increased resources,improved communication, changes in procurement, and clearer guidelines.

Las prácticas colusorias vienen a ser conductas perjudiciales para la competencia, ya que involucran una coordinación, conspiración o acuerdo entre postores o proveedores, con el fin de no competir en el desarrollo de los procesos de selección. En ese sentido, la presente investigación tiene por objeto proponer medidas a ser adoptadas durante el proceso de selección en las contrataciones públicas para evitar prácticas colusorias. Para ello fue necesario diseñar un marco institucional el cual favorezca la competencia al interior de los procesos de selección, para que así el Estado o la ley no se convierta en un instrumento que posibilite la colusión. Asimismo, se tomará como referencia la legislación y jurisprudencia nacional, así como también de los países de Brasil y España para analizar la prohibición de las prácticas colusorias como conductas anticompetitivas. Además, el estudio realizado viene a ser de tipo documental, ya que, se ha tenido cuenta el análisis como objeto de estudio, presentando como fundamento bases conceptuales y teóricas, asimismo, en esta investigación las bases teóricas y conceptuales se ahondan en cuanto la obtención de contenidos de fuentes bibliográficas. / Collusive practices are behaviors harmful to competition, since they involve a coordination, conspiracy or agreement between bidders or suppliers, in order not to compete in the development of selection processes. In this sense, the purpose of this research is to propose measures to be adopted during the selection process in public procurement to avoid collusive practices. For this purpose, it was necessary to design an institutional framework that favors competition within the selection processes, so that the State or the law does not become an instrument that makes collusion possible. Likewise, national legislation and jurisprudence, as well as those of Brazil and Spain, will be used as a reference to analyze the prohibition of collusive practices as anticompetitive conducts. In addition, the study carried out is of a documentary type, since the analysis has been taken into account as an object of study, presenting as a basis conceptual and theoretical bases, likewise, in this research the theoretical and conceptual bases are deepened in terms of obtaining contents from bibliographic sources.

This study undertook a critical examination of developing countries’ experiences of infrastructure-related construction dispute resolution using Ghana as a case study. It investigated the dispute resolution processes and procedures which parties to infrastructure construction disputes employed to address such disputes. To gain a better understanding of the dispute resolution processes, the study also assessed the legal framework for procurement and contract formation and other contextual issues which influenced parties’ dispute resolution choices. Consequently, strategies for efficient and effective dispute resolution were developed. The main rationale for the study was the need for effective and efficient dispute resolution processes in the context of infrastructure projects in developing countries. The literature indicated that disputes often occurred on such projects in developing countries that were resolved at great cost mainly by arbitral tribunals in the developed world. However, there was limited information on the extent to which other dispute resolution mechanisms were utilised prior to resort to international arbitration. The study adopted a qualitative research approach informed by the interpretivist philosophical paradigm. Data was collected from fifty-six interviewees from the State as the Employer and foreign contractors through semi-structured interviews and documents and analysed using qualitative data analysis procedures associated with grounded theory research such as coding, constant comparison, memoing and diagramming, and doctrinal legal analysis. It was found that engineer’s determination, negotiation and international arbitration were the most used dispute resolution mechanisms. Others such as mediation were rarely used. The dispute resolution processes were characterised by high cost, low satisfaction with outcomes and negative effect on relationships. It was also found that the extant dispute resolution processes were the product of the nature of the parties, the context in which they operated and their responses to the context. Factors such as lack of coordination among the Employer’s sub-units, human resource constraints and political interference had varying negative impacts on dispute occurrence, dispute resolution system design and the dispute resolution processes. To deal with these challenges and achieve efficient and effective dispute resolution processes, four sets of remedial strategies (condensed into a model called the Dispute Resolution Efficiency Cycle (DREC)) were proposed. The study has provided empirical evidence which has addressed some of the gaps identified in the literature on issues such as absence of information on pre-international arbitration dispute processes. The study has also highlighted the impact of context and dispute system design on dispute resolution. Contributions to practice included diagnosing challenges with the extant dispute resolution processes and proposing possible remedial strategies.

Syfte: Lagen om offentlig upphandling tillämpas av alla myndigheter som upphandlar varor, tjänster och byggentreprenader med skattepengar. Syftet med denna studie är att få insikt över hur offentliga beställare tänker när de genomför upphandlingar av byggnader. Målet är att lista de faktorer som påverkar beslutfattandet angående kort och långsiktiga aspekter när en offentlig myndighet skall handla upp byggentreprenader samt att få förståelse för vilka egenskaper krävs av beställare för att kunna utföra enupphandling. Metod: Genom litteraturstudier undersöks hur lagen om offentlig upphandling är utformad, och vilka arbetsuppgifter en beställare har. Vidare studeras hur det kan bli fel och vilka konsekvenser som kan förekomma ifall beställaren upphandlar olagligt. I intervjuerna framkommer praktisk erfarenhet som beställare och fastighetsförvaltare har av LOU, hur de arbetar för att få fram den produkt de vill ha och vad som anses vara besvärligt med lagen. Resultat: Studien visar att beställarens arbete är omfattande och risken är stor att göra fel i upphandlingen. Egenskaper som påverkar beställarens arbete inkluderar erfarenhet, kompetens, branschkunskap. I litteraturstudien framkommer att ett anbud kan vinnas med lägsta pris, eller med ekonomiskt mest fördelaktiga anbud. Det sistnämnda beslutas genom att analysera mjuka parametrar, exempelvis driftkostnader, anbudsgivares organisation, genomförandetider m.m. Faktorer som påverkar beställarens valmöjligheter angående kort- och långsiktiga aspekter beror på branschkunskap, LOU:s utformning, organisationens struktur, politiska policys, miljöcertifieringar, entreprenadformer och byggnadens användningsområde. Mjuka parametrar kan vara svåra att kontrollera och kan leda till överklagan. De som ofta analyseras i dagsläget utöver pris är entreprenörens organisation. Pris är alltid en parameter som beställare analyserar och ofta den enda parameter som granskas. Konsekvenser: LOU finns för att gynna konkurrensen i landet och i EU. Vissa delar av lagen hämmar beställarens valmöjligheter och kan göra deras arbete krångligt att genomföra. Det är bra för alla som arbetar med LOU att förstå hur en beställare resonerar kring kvalitéer för en byggnad och hur de arbetar med anbudsutvärderingen. Begränsningar: Studien är begränsad till offentliga beställare som arbetar i kommuner med ca 100 000 invånare i storlek. Intervjuerna är begränsade till beställare och förvaltare. Studien undersöker beställares resonemang som arbetar med byggentreprenadupphandlingar. / Purpose: The law of public procurement is used by all governments who procure products, services and public works using tax funds. The purpose of this study is to acquire an overview of how public purchasers’ reason regarding procurement of public works. The aim of this study is to list factors that affect decision-making regarding short and long-term aspects when a public government is to purchase public works, and to acquire an understanding of what personal qualities are needed to undergo a procurement. Method: Literature studies examine how the law of public procurement is designed,and what tasks a procurer has. Further studies are made on how things can go wrong and what the consequences can be if the purchaser undergoes an unlawful procurement. The interviews illustrate practical experience that procurers and property managershave on the law of public procurement, how they go about acquiring their wanted product and their views on what is problematic about this law. Findings: This study shows us that the procurers work is comprehensive and that there is a big risk of doing something wrong in the procurement. Qualities that affect aprocurer’s work include experience, competence and knowledge of the industry. The literature studies show that a bid can be won by the lowest cost, or by the most economically advantageous tender. The latter is determined through analysing soft parameters, such as operating costs, the bidders’ organisation, production times and more. Factors that affect the procurers options regarding short and long-term aspects depends on industry knowledge, configuration of the public procurement law, structure of the organisation, political policies, environmental certifications, type of contracting and the usage of the building. Soft parameters can be difficult to control and can lead to a judicial appeal. What is currently analysed other than price is usually is the organisation of the contractor. Price is always a parameter that procurers analyse and often the only one. Implications: The public procurement law exists to favour competition in the nationand in EU. Some parts of law inhibits procures’ options and can make their work difficult to carry out. How procurers’ reason on choice of qualities of buildings and how they work with evaluating bids are good things to know for anyone involved with the public procurement law. Limitations: This study is limited to public procurers working in municipalities of about 100 000 inhabitants. The interviews are restricted to procurers and property managers. The study investigates how buyers working with procurement of public works reason.

在面臨知識經濟的潮流下，隨著全球化、知識化的衝擊以及快速發展，有效的取得前瞻技術已成為企業建立與維持競爭優勢的重要手段，科學與技術的創新能力亦成為國家強化產業領導地位、厚植總體競爭力的主要方式。 　　經濟部科技專案計畫每年均投入相當經費，委託研究機構及產業界從事產業技術之研發，期能強化國內產業之競爭優勢，並有效提升產業研發能力及開創新興科技產業，最終目的在推動我國成為高附加價值製造中心；但由於經濟部技術處人員嚴重不足，因此乃採取委外方式辦理，以降低人力負荷，並活用民間資源。 　　本研究目的主要針對科技專案委外之實際面，就推動委外的歷史演變、政策法規、決策模式，做廣泛而深入與探討，並透過委託人、代理人及審查專家，做質性訪談，探究委外關係策略及過程，期望對於科技專案計畫委外之作業機制，提出精進之建議。 　　經過上述的研究程序，本研究發現以下結論：1.組織面：(1)技術處委外歷史背景為由下而上，促成辦理。(2)委外以資金換取無形成本，而有形成本並未降低。(3)以代理人執行作業，卻由委託人擔負責任，權責不相當。(4) 從事研發工作之代理人大多為政府扶植財團法人。2.管制面：(1)行政控管著重進行過程甚過於執行結果。(2)研發控管方式著重預定標準及實際績效。(3)每年簽約作業繁複瑣碎，致使信任降低。3.心理面：(1)公務事不再是終身職。(2)沿用以往模式，陷入行動慣性，成功假象！ 相關的建議如下：1.技術處應建立責任歸屬模式。2.技術處應簡化作業流程、資訊上線。3.技術處應預期並重視合約終止的處理方式。4.執行單位應強化中階主管的穩定性，對於專家對談監督機制，輔以一約多年之合約。 關鍵字：科技專案計畫、委外、政府採購法、管理 / Nowadays many governments seek factors influencing the economic growth of a country to continue developing and to be more competitive in a rapidly changing and globalizing world. In this era of knowledge-based economy, knowledge is often assumed to be the fundamental resource. It is a crucial factor for the economic growth of a country. How to produce and create more knowledge is deemed to be one of the most crucial tasks of a government. One way of producing knowledge is investing in research and development (R&D) to develop new technologies. Recently, many studies suggest that a new technology that raises higher total productivity is one of the factors to the economic growth of a country. So for countries and private enterprises it is especially important to have access to leading, advanced and key component technologies. Each year the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan invests a lot in public research and development. They started the “scientific technology development project”, to develop new technologies, especially industrial technologies. MOEA expects these huge investments to strengthen the innovative capabilities of Taiwanese industries and to upgrade Taiwanese industries. Due to heavy workloads and insufficient human resources in the Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT) , DOIT needs to outsource these scientific technology development projects to research institutes and corporations. DOIT expects to take advantages of the efficiency and flexible organizational structure of the private sector. Hence, recently the issue towards “government outsource” catches more and more attentions than ever. The main purposes of this research paper are as followed. Through qualitative interviews with civil servants, governmental officers, outsourcers, agents and specialists and context analysis, this research paper would like to have an overview on the historical background, the current situation of DOIT’s outsource and its management, to describe the difficulties and problems for the outsourcer (DOIT) and the agents (research institutes and corporations). This research paper would also illustrate policies, legal part, such as public procurement act and decision-making strategies of outsourcing of DOIT. At the end, this paper will give suggestions for DOIT’s outsource. First of all, from organizational aspect, the important findings are as followed. 1.Originally, the demand of outsource exists earlier than the supply. More precisely, the agents reinforce the government to have a way working on scientific technology development projects properly. 2.DOIT subsidizes the research institutes to carry out these projects in order to exchange intangible assets of the research institutes, such as human capital and so on. Nevertheless, the real cost is not less. 3.The agents carry out these projects, but outsourcer needs to take the responsibility of the consequences. 4.Most agents are research institutes, which are fully subsidized by the government. Secondly, from the governing and managing aspect, the findings are as below. 1.Administrative governance puts more emphasis on the executive process of these projects than the results per se of the projects. 2.About the management of research and development results, DOIT focuses on the comparison between anticipating and real effects. 3.Each year the outsourcing contracts between DOIT and those agents have to be either re-new or re-made. It makes the relationship between two parties less reliable. Thirdly, from the psychological aspect, the subsidies from government for the agents are less and less. And repeating the same way will be the tarp of inertia for outsourcers and agents and it will make it difficult to have breakthrough or new ides. Finally, in this research paper give some suggestions to the findings for the governmental outsourcing management for scientific technology development project. 1.DOIT needs to clearly state who should take responsibility. 2.DOIT should simplify the procedure by making better use of information communication technologies. 3.DOIT should emphasize more on finding a better way in coping with the termination of an outsourcing contract. 4.The original governing and managing module should be revised. New module, “peer review” and multi-year contract, should be taken into consideration. Keywords: Scientific technology development project, Outsourcing, Public procurement act, Management

Turnkey contract is a commonly used form of contract for procurement of projects, however not so common when it comes to rail infrastructure, because railway installations are so complex and makes greater demands on availability and traffic safety. Performance contracts have occurred in railway projects for a long time. The Swedish Transport Administration has received directives from the government to push for increased productivity and increased degree of innovation in the construction industry. The Swedish Transport Administration has the ambition to transform its role as a client to create the conditions for the market and its driving forces for increased innovation and productivity by handing over a greater commitment and responsibility to the contractors. A strategic primary focus is to increase the proportion of turnkey projects within the construction industry. Contracts relating to investments between 25-500 million will be procured through turnkey projects. The purpose of this report is to identify how the market views the specifications with emphasis on object-specific technical description, its calculability, structure and clarity. The section that has been analyzed in this report is the construction of the freight line between Stenkumla - Dunsjö that is part of the whole distance between Hallsberg - Degerön. Interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs who have participated in the bidding contest. The purpose of the interviews was to get the contractors' views on the specifications that can be taken into account in future projects. Responses will be analyzed by the Swedish Transport Administration and taken into account for the development of future specifications in turnkey contracts for the construction industry. OTB for the route Stenkumla - Dunsjö, entrepreneurs are not allowed to come up with innovative solutions, since the specifications contain many technical solutions specified by the Swedish Transport Administration. The contractors want more freedom in the specifications in order to provide innovative solutions. One reason that there are many technical solutions in this project is because, the project was meant to be procured as performance contract and Traffic Authority had already planned a lot before they decided to purchase it as Turnkey contract. / Totalentreprenader är vanligt förekommande entreprenadformen vid upphandling av projekt dock inte så vanligt när det gäller järnvägsanläggningar eftersom järnvägsanläggningar är så komplexa och ställer större krav på tillgänglighet och trafiksäkerhet. Utförandeentreprenader har varit entreprenadformen som har förekommit vid järnvägsprojekt under en längre tid. Trafikverket har fått direktiv från regering att verka för ökad produktivitet och ökad innovationsgrad i anläggningsbranschen. Trafikverket har som ambition att förändra sin roll som beställare för att skapa förutsättningar för marknaden och dess drivkrafter till ökas innovation och produktivitet genom att överlämna ett större åtagande och ansvar till entreprenörerna.   En strategisk huvudinriktning är att öka andelen totalentreprenader inom anläggningsbranschen. Entreprenader som avser investeringar mellan 25 – 500 Mkr ska 50 % av entreprenaderna upphandlas genom totalentreprenader. Syftet med denna rapport är att kartlägga hur marknaden ser på förfrågningsunderlaget med tonvikt på det objektspcifik tekniska beskrivningen, dess kalkylbarhet, struktur och tydlighet. Sträckan som har i denna rapport analyserat är byggnationen av godsstråket mellan Stenkumla – Dunsjö som är en del av hela sträckan mellan Hallsberg – Degerön. Intervjuer har utförts med entreprenörerna som har deltagit i anbudstävlingen. Syftet med intervjuerna har varit för att få entreprenörernas synpunkter på förfrågningsunderlaget som kan tas hänsyn till i kommande projekt.  Svaren kommer analyseras av Trafikverket och tas i hänsyn till utvecklingsarbetet av framtida förfrågningsunderlag inom totalentreprenader för anläggningsbranschen. OTB för just sträckan Stenkumla – Dunsjö, tillåts inte entreprenörerna komma med innovativa lösningar eftersom förfrågningsunderlaget innehåller många tekniska lösningar som angivits av Trafikverket. Entreprenörerna vill ha mer frihet i förfrågningsunderlagen för att kunna bidra med innovativa lösningar. En anledning till att det finns många tekniska lösningar i detta projekt är att det finns en beslutad järnvägsplan. Järnvägsplanen styr utformningen av anläggningen.

The topic of this submitted diploma thesis is an analysis of the commissioning and evaluation of the public procurement in the Czech Republic. I pay attention to the most frequent mistakes at spending public funds through the public procurement. The first chapter is devoted to the theoretical description of the Czech public procurement system. The next chapters include the overview of the evaluation system and evaluation criteria in the public procurement. The forth and the fifth chapters are focused on the general and individual mistakes during the commissioning and the application procedure.

Supervision over public tenders This diploma thesis focuses on explanation and evaluation of the activity of the Office for the Protection of Competition as the authority entitled to assess complience with the Act no. 137/2006 Coll., on Public Contracts, during the process of public procurement. The thesis evaluates quality of legislative regulation on the supervision over public tenders and atempts to define problematic aspects of the matter and tries to suggest their solution. After an introductory part the thesis is devided into three main chapters. The goal of the first chapter is to provide necessary outline of terminology used by the Act no. 137/2006 Coll., on Public Contracts, including the key term of supervision over public tenders and the outline of the basic principles which the whole system of public procurement proceedings stands on. The first chapter also considerates important aspects of previous and current legislation. In chapter two I deal with the functioning of supervising activity over public tenders. It was necessary to outline general concepts of supervision including their advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, this chapter focuses on outlining the scope of activities by which the Office for the Protection of Competition provided and which have been significantly...

Political Finance Reform and Public Procurement:  Evidence from Lithuania. Can political donations buy influence? This paper studies whether firms trade political contributions for public procurement contracts. To answer this question, I focus on the Lithuanian political economy. Combining data on a large number of government tenders, the universe of corporate donors and firm characteristics, I examine how a ban on corporate donations affects the awarding of procurement contracts to companies that donated in the past. Consistent with political favoritism, contributing firms’ probability of winning goes down by five percentage points as compared to that of non-donor firms after the ban. Among different mechanisms, the hypothesis that corporate donors get confidential information on competing bids prevails. The empirical results are in line with predictions from a first-price sealed-bid auction model with one informed bidder. Evidence on firm bidding and victory margins suggests that contributing firms adjust their bids in order to secure contracts at a maximum revenue. I assess that tax payers save almost one percent of GDP thanks to the reform. Gender Quotas and the Quality of Politicians. We analyze the effects of the introduction of gender quotas in candidate lists on the quality of elected politicians, as measured by the average number of years of education. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation. We find that gender quotas are associated with an increase in the quality of elected politicians, with the effect ranging from 0.12 to 0.24 years of education. This effect is due not only to the higher number of elected women, who are on average more educated than men, but also to the lower number of low-educated elected men. The positive effect on quality is confirmed when we measure the latter with alternative indicators, it persists in the long run and it is robust to controlling for political ideology and political competition. Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly. There is evidence that age matters in politics. In this article we study whether implementation of affirmative action policies on gender can generate additional effects on an alternative dimension of representation, namely, the age of politicians. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in candidate lists for local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we can identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the effect of gender quotas on the age of elected politicians. We find that gender quotas are associated with election of politicians that are younger by more than one year. The effect occurs mainly due to the reduction in age of elected male politicians and is consistent with the optimizing behavior of parties or of voters. Let the Voters Choose Women. Female under-representation in politics can be the result of parties' selection of candidates and/or of voters’ electoral preferences. To assess the impact of these two channels, we exploit the introduction of Italian Law 215/2013, which prescribes both gender quotas on candidate lists and double preference voting conditioned on gender. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate that the law increases the share of elected female politicians by 22 percentage points. The result is driven by the increase in preference votes cast for female candidates, suggesting a salient role of double preference voting in promoting female empowerment in politics.

This thesis uses a case study approach and investigates how the institutional environment has an impact on decision making regarding sales within three departments at WSP Management in Sweden. With the application of neo-institutional frameworks, the study explains how decision making is constrained by the institution and the actors that make up the institutional environment, as well as how a pursuit for stability and legitimacy isolate engineering consultant companies from other sectors within the market.   The study concludes that the institutional environments inducements have created a sales structure within the departments that is solely focused on the public sector and acquiring contracts through public procurement. This sales structure is heavily imprinted within the departments and has created a culture where employees rely in department management to solely sell their services to potential customers. The success and efficiency within this institutional environment has made it that the departments key performance indicator-demands from upper the upper management are based on a sales structure that requires little or no proactive sales. The inducements within the regulative institutional environment thus has a big impact on their decision making when they are trying to maintain a financial stability in relation to the company’s upper management. With the current structure they have been placed in an institutional comfort zone in which they will be stuck within if no change is made.