Brazil's GPA accession will involve costs and benefits

Significance The agreement would open a market of USD1.7tn for Brazilian companies to compete for government procurement contracts internationally, but would also render them vulnerable to competition for Brazilian government contracts from foreign suppliers on equal terms. The process of negotiations is a lengthy one, as well as controversial. Impacts Accession to the GPA could facilitate Brazil’s ambition to join the OECD. Domestic companies’ lack of competitiveness within the GPA could aggravate existing problems with industrial performance. Political uncertainties surrounding the October elections could delay the pace of accession.

Using Machine Learning to Improve Public Reporting on U.S. Government Contracts

The U.S. government procures more than $500 billion annually in goods and services on public contracts, which it classifies using a hierarchical product and service taxonomy. Classification serves several purposes, including transparency in the use of taxpayer funding; reporting, tracing, and segmenting government expenditures; budgeting; and forecasting. Government acquisition personnel have historically performed these classifications manually, resulting in a process that is time-consuming and error-prone and offers limited visibility into government purchases. The problem faced is not unique to the public sector and is common across retail, manufacturing, and healthcare, among other settings. Using almost 4 million historical data records on governmental purchases, we fit a series of classifiers and demonstrate (a) superior performance when explicitly modeling the hierarchical structure of information domains through the use of top-down strategies and (b) the effectiveness of character-level convolutional neural networks when textual inputs are terse and contain irregularities such as abnormal character combinations and misspellings, which are common in government contracts. Our machine learning models are embedded in multiple software applications, including a web application that we developed, used by federal government personnel and other contracting professionals.

Review of software for public procurement

The designated topic is one of the most relevant today, since the general use of automation of processes leads to an increase in their efficiency and this is a phenomenon that has already been proven by time. The article considers an overview of the software support for public procurement. The basic principles and mechanisms of contract turnover and the use of various programs throughout the procurement procedure are considered, as well as a comparative analysis of popular programs for working with contracts and purchases with a designation of their features. The work also used a large amount of drawings reflecting the architecture of the process. As a result of writing the work, it was possible to get an idea of the ongoing processes, in public procurement, occurring in the field of those specialists who are responsible for accounting for government contracts, as well as the software used locally.

On the issue of financing non-governmental human rights organizations: international legal aspect

In the article considers some international legal aspects of NGO funding and outlines some problems that arise as a result of the functioning of these organizations and have not yet been resolved. The author notes that despite the significant scientific interest in the functioning and prospects of NGO development, some international legal aspects of their funding have not yet found proper legal consolidation and agreed doctrinal interpretation. In addition, the activities of NGOs provoke a mixed reaction from government agencies and certain segments of society. Therefore, the study of some features of NGO funding as subjects of international human rights activities, the author considers relevant, both in theoretical and practical terms. The author emphasizes that in addition to the negative impact of the established restrictions, there are urgent grounds for its implementation within the relevant legal regulation. One of the reasons for the emergence of mistrust and conflict situations in which NGOs are a party is the insufficient state of settlement of the legal status of the latter. The article states that the financial status of many NGOs is not transparent enough, as a result, some of them compete for government contracts and funds, which creates a risk of losing autonomy and independence, casts doubt on the impartial implementation of their missions.

15. Contracts

Contracts are used to structure the legal relationship between government and private service providers. Contract also forms a new model both for relationships between public agencies and for the relationship between the government and the people it serves. The challenge for the government is to deliver services with integrity, with equity, and with efficiency. The challenge for administrative law is to provide forms of accountability that do what the law can do to promote those goals. This chapter discusses government by contract and proportionate administration, accountability and efficiency, capacity to contract, and how the law controls government contracts.

Do political and business relations help emerging markets' SMEs in their national and international expansion? Evidence from Brazil and China

PurposeThis study aims to understand whether business and political relations help emerging markets' SMEs to overcome the challenges posed by low institutionalization in their national and international expansion. It focuses on the role that these relations play in determining access to government funding and contracts and to market information and business-related knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 828 SMEs in Brazil and China. The data analysis was developed in two stages: the first stage was based on multivariate regression analyses using the ratio of sales outside the companies' region of origin divided by total sales as a dependent variable and the survey's answers as independent variables; outward sales were taken at two different levels – national and international – to consider: (1) the different stages in the national and international expansion process, and (2) the fragmented nature of domestic markets in both Brazil and China. The second stage was based on a stepwise multiple regression as the relative importance of the variables was not known beforehand and the objective was to rank them according to the managers' perceptions.FindingsInformal institutions, in particular business and political relations, can help to reduce uncertainty and overcome some disadvantages associated with weak institutionalization. They do this by providing access to trusted distribution channels, improving the familiarity with different institutional environments and strengthening the management of supply chains and commercial strategies to serve markets outside their region. Also, SMEs in emerging markets getting access to private sources of funding, market knowledge and government contracts through business and political relations are in a better position to expand nationally and internationally.Originality/valueThe research shows that the domestic environment, in particular one with low levels of institutionalization, impacts negatively the national and international expansion of SMEs and, more importantly, how firms can use business and political relations to overcome the obstacles posed by this environment. The findings also have implications for theory, practice and policymaking.