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Housing Seminar: Partnerships with the Public Sector – Avoiding the pitfalls
Thu 31 May 2012
Minerva House, 5 Montague Close, London, SE1 9BB
Government pledges to get more SMEs involved in procurement
Thu 09 Feb 2012
The government has reaffirmed its commitment to opening up public procurement to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
According to official data, most contracts with the state still go to bigger companies, despite pledges from the coalition to involve smaller ventures more heavily.
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has acknowledged more can be done to help the government meet its targets, but insisted it is addressing the issue so more orders can be placed with SMEs.
He noted that the procurement system that was in place before the coalition came into office was extremely bureaucratic, cumbersome and costly for bidders and taxpayers.
Mr Maude said this led to many SMEs being excluded, as the procedures "made it incredibly difficult" for them to submit bids.
Jon Baldwin, procurement specialist at law firm Winckworth Sherwood, commented: “SMEs can be great drivers of innovation and are vital to bringing growth back to our economy. It is important that purchasing authorities do what they can to ensure a fairer playing field.
"Simple changes such as rethinking the amount of documentation that is required at each stage of the process, splitting requirements into smaller lots, and encouraging the opening up of subcontracting opportunities should help to stem the exclusion of SMEs from public contracts and, in many cases, deliver better value to authorities.”
Last year, the government launched the Contracts Finder website as part of an effort to ensure 25 per cent of public sector contracts are secured by smaller companies.
