COMPETITIVE DIALOGUE AND THE NEGOTIATED PROCEDURES Essay

COMPETITIVE DIALOGUE AND THE NEGOTIATED PROCEDURES - Essay Example Such goods may include some IT application gadgets as well as some security and military equipments. In the latter category, the procurer customizes and specifies the characteristics required and the manufacturer produces the goods in the customized traits. This provision entitles the procurer to identifying probable suppliers, who with the specifications of the procurer, manufactures and supplies the required products. This has led to devising of the tendering mechanisms such as the competitive tendering and the negotiated procedures of procurement by both the private as well as the public domain besides the open and the closed tendering procedures. The competitive dialogue involves customized discussions that involves many bidders and, applied in complex procurement procedures. The competitive dialogue method is characterized of two basic stages where the contracting authority starts by advertising the opportunities. Interested participants apply and gives the information through w hich the contracting authority to determine the competitiveness of the applicants for the contracts and thus few of the qualified applicants are shortlisted for the second phase which is the actual competitive dialogue. The dialogue entails thorough discussions with the shortlisted participants and the contracting authority stops to engage when it is assured of proposals that will meet her requirements. After the dialogue, the authority then invites tenders for the contract and the evaluation of the tenders stick to the formula of most economically advantageous. On the other hand, negotiated procedures involve the negotiation of procurement by procurer (contracting authority) and the potential bidders where the most cost effective bidders get the contract award1. The competitive dialogue pass through the two stages as with the prior procedure with the difference notable in that within the negotiated procedures the contracting authority requires proposals from the shortlisted partici pants before engaging in negotiations. In the analysis of procurement through competitive dialogue as well as the negotiation procedures, the most outstanding thing is that both the procurer and the supplier has information that the other has not and is important for the tendering process to be efficient as well as successful. The success of the negotiated as well as the competitive dialogue procurement procedures rest on the ability for the parties involved to use the information at hand convincingly to win the contract award. The two procedures therefore run hand in hand and are thus reviewed together. In the event that competitive dialogue becomes strenuous, then procurer would source for a probable supplier within the market and thus negotiate the procurement procedures. Competitive Dialogue According to the directive 2004-18-ec, the member states have the provision of choosing what kind of contracting that the authorities would be permitted to use either through central purchas ing bodies, auctions by electronic means, dynamic purchasing systems as well as through competitive dialogue procedure2. Competitive dialogue is a mechanism or a procedure through which institutions achieve bidding mechanisms for the purpose of procurement by discussions. It is a provision through which all economic operators are allowed to request to participate in the competitive dialogue leading to assignment of a contract. A newly devised procedure, Competitive dialogue is most applied in public procurement and bidding practices. It was designed to be used in contract procedures, which the open or closed procurement proce

The Enron Scandal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Enron Scandal - Essay Example There have been several causes suggested by various experts and analysts that actually caused the failure of the company. Experts have indicated Enron as the biggest audit failure in the American history. The biggest energy company in the world rapidly collapsed which drew attention on its several economical and commercial aspects (Wilkinson, 2005). For the purpose, this paper shall analyze the case study of Enron scandal. Several management and strategic decisions and policies contributed to the major fall in the US corporate history. The paper shall further analyze the causes of the failure from economic perspectives. Background Enron was established in 1985, and it was one of the leading seven American energy companies. It was one of the world’s leading natural gas, electricity, and communication companies. The annual revenues of the company rose from $9 billion to more than $100 billion in just 5 years after 1995 (Salter, 2008). According to reports and published financial s, in 2000 the company’s stock price stood at $90; however, at the end of 2001, the stock price of Enron felt to less than $1. Furthermore, the last published financial statements of Enron depicted that the company made a loss of $586 million (Sterling, 2002). This caused the company to financially fail and by the end of December 2001, the company went bankrupt. As a result of this, billions of dollars were wiped out from the US capital markets and investors across the globe lost their trust in the US financial and corporate sectors, which were not efficient enough to build strong checks and balances on businesses like Enron. The case of Enron opened up investigations into several other unethical practices of other organizations, and the ripple effect shook up the entire US corporate sector. Supply and demand During 1990’s, the population of California raised by thirteen percent, whereas, the government did not make any enough investments in building power plants to co pe with the rising requirements of electricity. The government expanded the existing energy plants’ capacity by 30% during 1990-2001. Furthermore, in 1991 the drought in the northwest states caused the supply of hydroelectric from Pacific Northwest of Oregon and Washington to decline (Barreveld, 2002). Both drought and energy shortages created a supply gap in the country, and the government faced several issues to cope with the energy demand in the region (Swartz & Watkins, 2004). With the rapid increase in the population and the breakdown in California’s electricity generating capacity created a situation of less supply as compared to the energy demand. The industrial sector was highly affected as the supply of energy remained very low during the peak working hours. Furthermore, the private industries were using privately owned power generating plants as energy reserves of California were not sufficient to meet the demand. On the other hand, the state owned energy pla nts were deliberately shut down in order to manipulate energy prices (Swartz & Watkins, 2004). The gap between supply and demand of energy was deliberate in order to raise prices of the electricity generated by private generators (Miller & Fusaro, 2002). Enron secretly exercised with the government to create a gap between the energy produced and its requirement in the