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Poor price visibility leads firms to overspendManufacturers, distributors and retailers will overspend by $415 billion this year on transportation, technology, telecoms and energy.
Automotive suppliers seek cost recovery on raw materialsSuppliers to automotive manufacturers are seeking contractual changes to take account of rising raw material costs.
SM blog highlights EU buying laws controversyA debate over the value of EU public procurement rules, and whether they should be scrapped, has been raging on the SM website.

Be open to disclosureIn the light of a recent European Court ruling, Richard Auton explains why local authorities must provide unsuccessful bidders with information to challenge a decision 02 September 2010
Dominion Corporate Trustees v Debenhams PropertiesHow effective is a time is of the essence clause in a contract? 02 September 2010
Business Contracts HandbookBy Charles Boundy, Gower, 4 out of 5 02 September 2010
The point of no returnWhen a quote from a supplier says that the product cannot be cancelled or returned. Is this legal? Surely this contravenes the Sale of Goods Act or the Distance Selling Regulations. 02 September 2010

Slump in house building slows construction growthReduced growth in house building is weighing down the UK construction sector, which is experiencing a slowdown in expansion for the third consecutive month.

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The state of the procurement job marketRecruitment may be on ice for much of the UK public sector, but elsewhere the situation is starting to thaw. Paul Snell reports on what looks to be an interesting year ahead for buyers 02 September 2010
Take a leaf from CanadaUK public sector buyers could look to Canada for pointers on how to make drastic cuts in the budget. Nick Martindale outlines the lessons that can be learnt 02 September 2010
Better dialogueCompetitive dialogue hasn't had the best press, but get it right and both buyers and suppliers will benefit, says Peter Micklewright 02 September 2010
ART for life's sakeThe purchase and supply of anti-retroviral drugs is vitally important in southern Africa, explains Tatum Anderson 02 September 2010

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The CIPS Conference 2010 will be held at Kings Place, London on 23 September 2010.

OJEU debate misses the point
Let’s ask why are so many organisations so bad at running compliant EU procurement processes? Let’s ask why do they take nine, 12 or 18 months to run competitions the legislation allows to be done in about three? 02 September 2010