KOFA’s Annual Public Procurement Conference
The Annual Public Procurement Conference organized by the Norwegian Complaints Board (“KOFA") was held on October 13th, 2015 in Bergen.
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As 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 also very complete and varied and included a presentation by Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, member of our research group and BECCLE, as well as the now chief economist of the Norwegian Competition Authority and former BECCLE director Lars Sørgard.
Ignacio and Lars had a joint session on the "Ups and Downs of Buying Big” in which they discuss the legal and economic aspects of centralization of purchases and division into lots from a procurement and competition law & economics perspective.
The rest of the panel speakers were:
• KOFA’s Director and former Supreme Court Judge Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn speaking about the current status of KOFA
• Deputy Director from the Ministry of Industry and Fisheries Monica Auberg held a presentation concerning the implementation of the Directives into Norwegian Law and the new rules governing KOFA
• From the Confederation of Norwegian Entreprise (“NHO”) Arnhild D. Gjønnes and Tore Andre Sines discussing effective and innovative procurement
• Lastly, Anders Thue, partner at Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS and collaborator at the EU/EEA Public Procurement Course at the UiB, had a lecture on the degree of discretion of contracting authorities in the award of public contracts.
The full program and presentations are available here.
Also, the UiB and KOFA share strong ties. Prof. Halvard Fredriksen, current 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. Also, we are looking to attend next year to what will be surely a highly successful and interesting KOFA’s Annual conference 2016.
Until 2016!