User:Jan-Putensen/sandbox

Introduction
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This is a first test of how to use Wikipedia!

Countries of Domicile
Typical countries of domicile of shell companies are offshore financial centers like Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, and the Channel Islands in Europe, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, Panama in Central America, and Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia. But also in the USA some states like Nevada and Wyoming host many shell companies.

Shell companies are usually offered by law firms based in thoses countries. Prices for setting up a shell company can be as low as just $1000 for a basic version. Additional services like guaranteed anonymity or a whole net of shell companies cost more. The process of establishing a shell company is often quite easy and can sometimes be done very quickly online.

Regulation
Since shell companies are very often abused for various illegal purposes, regulation of shell companies is becoming more important to prevent such illegal activities.

United Kingdom
Currently British overseas territories and crown dependencies are only required to tell the true name of owners of shell companies upon request from official law enforcement agencies. However, by 2020 they will be forced to publish these names in a public register in order to prevent anonymous use of shell companies.

United States
The new customer due dilligence (CDD) rule from 2016 forces banks to know the names of their customers in order to reveal them to law enforcement agencies upon request. Thereby, anonymous misuse of shell companies shall be prevented. The rule is administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Rationale for Government Procurement
Government procurement is necessary because governments cannot produce all the inputs for the goods they provide themselves. Governments usually provide public goods, e.g. national defense or public infrastructure. Public goods are non-rival and non-excludable. Therefore, it is very difficult to make individuals pay for using those goods. People tend to free-ride, meaning they use a public good but avoid paying for it. Consequently, private markets cannot provide public goods. Instead the government provides those goods and finances them by raising taxes from all citizens.

In addition to public goods, governments often also provide merit goods, such as education or health care. Merit goods are private goods which are rival and excludabel and can, therefore, be provided by private markets. Nevertheless, governments also provide merit goods because of reasons of equity and fairness and because they have positive externalities for society as a whole.

In order to provide public and merit goods, the government has to buy input factors from private companies, e.g. police cars, school buildings, uniforms etc. This process is called government or public procurement.

Problems
Government procurement involves a high risk of corruption because of the great size of financial turnover and the complexitiy of many procurement processes in which businesses interacht very closely with politicians and civil servants. Often the personal interests of the public officials are not the same as the interests of the public. Such a conflict of interest problem, known as the principal-agent-problem, increases the risk of corruption. According to OECD, the by far highest percentage of bribery cases occur in the area of public procurement to influence the awarding of public contracts. Corruption in public procurement causes inefficiencies and high costs to the public. In order to prevent corruption and to ensure transparency and competition among suppliers, public procurement is subject to legal regulation.

Canada
Public procurement in Canada is regulated on various governmental levels (federal, provincial, municipal). Most federal procurement is organized by the Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) agency and is governed by their Code of Conduct of Procurement in combination with principles laid out in the Federal Accountability Act and in the Financial Administration Act. Public procurement is guided by the principles of fairness, transparency, openness, and non-discrimination and complies with all international agreements that Canada is a member of (WTO Government Procurement Agreement [GPA], NAFTA, CETA, and various bilateral FTAs). Foreign suppliers from member nations to these agreements can bid on Canadian government procurements and are treated the same as domestic suppliers.

For contracts above $25,000, tenders are published on the transparent Government Electronic Tendering Service (GETS). A non-competitive procurement process is only used in certain special circumstances. One such area of exception are security-related procurements. In that case the Defence Production Act applies, which allows using a special process and favouring domestic suppliers in acquiring defence supplies and conducting defence.

European Union
Government procurement in the European Union accounts for more than EUR 2.2 trillion, or 14% of the EU GDP. It has been regulated and harmonized by community law since the 1970s in order to guarantee transparency and non-discrimination of EU companies in government procurement in all member states. EU laws apply only to tenders that exceed certain thresholds in value. These thresholds vary depending on the area the contract is for and if the procurement is done by a central government or by other public authorities (e.g. municipal government). National laws are applied for tenders below these threshold values. Relevant EU Directives regarding government procurement currently in force are Directive 2009/81, Directive 2014/24, and Directive 2014/25.

There are five different procedures for public procurement:


 * Open procedure: any company is allowed to submit a tender
 * Restricted procedure: only companies that have been preselected are allowed to submit a tender
 * Negotiated procedure: there are direct negotiations with at least three companies
 * Competitive dialogue: if it is not possible to define technical specifications at the beginning, a competitive dialogue with at least three companies is started after which tenders can be submitted. This procedure is applied for complex procurements.
 * Electronic auctions: companies that pass a pre-evaluation process can bid in electronic auctions for public contracts

The European Commission is working on further improving efficiency and transparency in government procurement in the EU with its current public procurement strategy.

France
In France the Department of Legal Affairs (DAJ) of the Ministry for the Economy and Finance (French: Ministère de l'Économie et des Finances) is responsible for establishing regulations regarding public procurement. All currently relevant EU directives have been implemented into national law.

Germany
In Germany the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (German: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie, abbreviated BMWi) is responsible for defining laws and principles regarding public procurement. In 2016 Germany transposed the new EU Directives from 2014 into domestic law. Thereby, processes and contracts in public procurement have become easier and more flexible. The Act against Restraints of Competition - Part IV (German: Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen, abbreviated GWB) and the Ordinance on the Award of Public Contracts (German: Verordnung über die Vergabe öffentlicher Aufträge, abbreviated VgV) regulate procurement above EU thresholds. Detailed procedures are specified in further regulations, e.g. the Procurement Regulation for Public Works (German abbreviation: VOB), the Procurement Regulation for Public Supplies and Services (VOL), and the Procurement Regulation for Professional Services (VOF). For many contracts electronic procurement is made possible via an online platform.

For public procurement below the EU thresholds there are different regulations. At the federal level national budgetary law applies while the 16 federal German states and some municipalies have their own public procurement laws and regulations. This decentralized system reflects the political decentralization in Germany. However, sub-national level procurement regulations often take national regulations as examples and also ensure competition, non-discrimination, and transparency.

Italy
Public procurement in Italy is primarily regulated by the Public Contracts Code which is administered by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (Italian: Ministero delle infrastrutture e dei trasporti). The code was reformed in 2016 to implement the new EU directives from 2014 into domestic Italian law. In addition to the code, guidelines from the National Anti-Corruption Authority (Italian: Autorità Nazionale AntiCorruzione, abbreviated ANAC) and decrees from various ministries also apply to public procurement. Most public procurement on a national level is administered by the state-owned company Consip S.p.A. Larger regions have their own agencies for public purchasing. The five regions with special autonomy (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta) can also establish regional legislation regarding public procurement.

Chapter 1
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Sub-chapter 1
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Chapter 2
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