Government in SMEs contracts boost
When the Government ordered Sir Philip Green to undertake an efficiency review of Government departments’ procurement he uncovered some notorious examples of poor purchasing – the press picked up on stories of some government departments paying anything between £8 and £73 for a box of paper, for example.
Another finding of great concern to the country’s SME’s was that, despite accounting for 50 per cent of the turnover of the UK business economy, it is estimated that SMEs only win a small proportion of the billions of pounds of public sector business.
As a result, the Government has announced a package of measures to make doing business with government more transparent, and more welcoming to smaller companies, charities and social enterprises. In order to help companies find this business, an online tool has been launched. Contracts Finder will display every central government tender opportunity, with an email alert facility to let you know when new ones in your area of business come up.
To reduce the time and bureaucracy in competing for a government contract, the prequalification process for lower-value procurements are being replaced by a straightforward questionnaire that you will only need to complete once for common goods and services, rather than resubmitting the same data every time.
The objective is that 25 per cent of government business should go to SMEs, and that many more contracts should be won by charities and social enterprises.
29 Mar 2011