The Annual Public Procurement Conference organized by the Norwegian Complaints Board (“KOFA”) was held in Bergen 13 October 2015.
Every year, specialists from all over Norway (and abroad) gather in this forum to discuss the latest developments in Norwegian public procurement practice, listen and evaluate the activities carried out by KOFA and discuss relevant topics related to the law and practice of public procurement.
This year’s conference was very interesting, well organized, fully booked (300+ participants) and packed with interesting discussions on the present and – more importantly – the future of public procurement in Norway. The program was very complete, varied and includied a presentation by BECCLE’s Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, as well as former BECCLE, now the chief economist of the Norwegian Competition Authority, Lars Sørgard.
Ignacio and Lars had a joint session on the “Ups and Downs of Buying Big” in which they discussed the legal and economic aspects of centralization of purchases and division into lots from a procurement and competition law andeconomics perspective.
The other panel speakers were:
- KOFA’s Director and former Supreme Court Judge Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn, speaking about the current status of KOFA
- Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Fisheries Monica Auberg. Aubergheld a presentation concerning the implementation of the Directives into Norwegian Law and the new rules governing KOFA
- Arnhild D. Gjønnes and Tore Andre Sines from the Confederation of Norwegian Entreprise (“NHO”), discussing effective and innovative procurement
- Anders Thue, partner at Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS and collaborator in the EU/EEA Public Procurement Course at UiB, held a lecture on the degree of discretion of contracting authorities in the award of public contracts.
The Faculty of Law, UiB, and KOFA share strong ties. Prof. Halvard Fredriksen is currently a KOFA Board Member, and PhD candidates Linda Midtun and Kristian Strømsnes are former members of the KOFA Secretariat.
We would like to congratulate Erlend Pedersen and the whole KOFA team for an excellent conference, and we are looking forward to attend next year’s conference. It will surely be a highly successful and interesting KOFA’s Annual conference 2016
Until 2016!
—
Text by Ignacio Herrera Achustegui
The full program and presentations are available here..
See originial post on the Research Group for Competition and Market Law’s website