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Anthony Dee Patricia Paz Republic Act No 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA), took effect on January 26 2003. The GPRA covers all stages of procurement of infrastructure projects, goods, and consulting services by all branches and instrumentalities of government. The GPRA establishes a two-tier protest mechanism to challenge a public procurement tender before an award. In order to exhaust this internal protest procedure, a bidder must first file a request for reconsideration with the procuring entity's Bids and Awards Committee (BAC). The BAC's denial of the request may be protested in writing to the head of the procuring entity upon payment of a non-refundable fee. The decision of the head of the procuring entity is final, such that the bidder may only avail itself of judicial review upon completion of protests and only on the ground of grave abuse of discretion. Arguably, this legal framework does not provide an expedient system for independent complaints review. Meeting the timeframes provided under the law for protest resolution is a challenge for many procuring entities, and the absence of independent and expert review undermines, to a certain degree, the legitimacy and credibility of any protest resolution.

The lighter side of the past month in the world of financial law

The Libor scandal fundamentally changed global regulatory enforcement. As Cleary Gottlieb's Jonathan Kelly explains, today, institutions are increasingly being deputised to police themselves

Plans for an EU capital markets union coincide with a review of the prospectus regime. The goal is to create a simpler, more harmonised prospectus regime

Hong Kong has proposed a regime to ensure creditors will be able to recover value if liquidation is a more favourable solution than resolution. But practical implementation will be challenging

The regulator's head of M&A, Willard Mwemba, discusses how the body’s merger review process has evolved since its launch in January 2013

The PDF of the entire book is available to download here

Local regulators’ and courts’ approach to successor liabilities means distressed M&A opportunities may not be a sweet as they first appear

The aftermath of the financial crisis has led to a lot of changes, and they are not over yet. It's inevitable for countries and markets to look to what areas need the most attention and improvement. But they should also focus on the regulators who have been at the centre of these reforms and who themselves require some updating.

US activist investors are now moving into Australia. But its strict association rules could be a hurdle to their success.