“It just struck me as insane that I could learn more by Googling a cheesesteak place at Ninth and Passyunk than I could about a supplier the commonwealth will pay $10 million a year to.”

David Yarkin, former Pennsylvania chief procurement officer who has since created his own consulting firm in Washington, regarding how difficult it can be for state and local governments to know about the private contractors they may work with. Yarkin’s online government-vendor review platform, Procurated, allows government agency staff to rate the services they buy from private contractors, making it like Yelp for government. (The Philadelphia Inquirer — Dec. 7, 2021)