And over the past six months, agencies have been making cuts by looking for better deals, by ending contracts and doing work in house, and by opening up no-bid contracts to competitive bidding.

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Put them through a competitive bid process (sealed bid or auction), with pre-set milestones.

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The amount spent on no-bid, non-competitive contracts jumped by 129 percent.

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Left-of-centre Greeks voted for Syriza both to punish Pasok for impoverishing the country and because Syriza opposes reforms that would open up closed-shop professions in a bid to make Greece more competitive.

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The analytic literature puts the average winning bid at one-third to two-thirds below competitive prices.

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Now the local government, irritated with Tepco over post-2011 supply hiccups, wants to put the power out to competitive bid.

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In contrast, Qwest was seen to be making its bid as a last ditch-effort to stay afloat in the increasingly competitive telecommunications industry.

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Since November, IBM Chief Executive Sam Palmisano has been making futurist statements about the need for a "smarter" national infrastructure, using information technology to upgrade the nation's roads, electric grid and health care system in a bid to increase their efficiency -- and to make America more internationally competitive and to create thousands of jobs.

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In a bid to offset the impact of sterling's rise and remain competitive with duty-free shops abroad, Heathrow's shops are offering travellers who pay in various foreign currencies a more favourable exchange rate than the current market rate.

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