News Article
Official launch of Public Contracts Scotland
Finance Secretary John Swinney this morning officially launched a new Scottish Government website that will offer Scottish businesses the opportunity to bid for hundreds of public sector contracts that they would not normally even know existed. Mr Swinney was addressing public sector delegates and their private sector suppliers at the Scottish Government’s National Public Procurement Conference being held at the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow.
New business opportunities, including the contracts to develop facilities and provide services for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, will be advertised on the new website, www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk which looks set to change the face of public procurement in Scotland.
The project is supported by CBI Scotland, the Federation of Small Businesses as well as the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and is already improving access to public business opportunities, with over 10,000 suppliers registered and more than 700 contracts advertised since the website opened for business at the end of July.
Mr Swinney said, ‘This is a fundamental change in the way that the public and private sectors will do business– in particular by reducing red tape and removing the barriers that can prevent us from working together with business.’
A new report out this month ‘Evaluating SME experiences of Government procurement,’ commissioned by the British Venture Capital Association together with the CBI and the Federation of Small Business, found that small businesses continue to face a number of barriers in winning public contracts.
• Over three quarters of SMEs believe it’s still difficult to find out about government opportunities;
• Over half of SMEs feel that the tendering process and timescales require too many resources which prevents them from responding effectively;
• Nearly three quarters of SMEs feel that there is a lack of responsiveness and too much formality in the procurement process.
The Public Contracts Scotland website directly addresses the first of these barriers as it will remove any excuse for an SME to claim that they were unaware of a particular opportunity. The Scottish Procurement Directorate awarded the contract to build and manage the website to Millstream Associates in July. Millstream - a leading e-procurement service provider to more than 9,000 public sector organisations and 85,000 suppliers –already provides similar national public procurement portals for the governments of Ireland and Norway.
It will be the first time that information on public sector opportunities in Scotland has been collected in one easily accessible location and offers every business a fair chance of winning contracts. It offers an open and transparent online system and will act as a focal point for both suppliers and public sector organisations. The portal will act as a catalyst for public bodies to advertise all their contract opportunities rather than just the high values ones. In the past only contracts worth more than £100,000 have been widely advertised, but it is anticipated that contracts with a value of £10,000 or £20,000 upwards will be advertised on Public Contracts Scotland.
Tim Williams, managing director of Aberdeen based Millstream Associates, said: “The team at Millstream has seen the positive effect that the public procurement portals in Ireland and Norway have had on economic development, so we’re delighted to be able to play our small part in boosting the economic growth of Scotland. As the country slides into recession, the government here in Scotland, as well as Westminster, have plans not just to maintain spending but to bring forward projects providing much needed support to hard hit sectors of the economy such as construction. In such times good information on public contracts is more important than ever.”
The website provides a forum for the public sector to advertise their requirements allowing private sector suppliers and increasingly voluntary organisations to easily find relevant business opportunities. The service helps public sector purchasers by identifying potential suppliers and helping to manage the communication between the purchaser and the supplier. By ensuring that suppliers are adequately qualified, the efficiency of the tender process is hugely improved, whether that is for construction work, marketing, management consultancy, school dinners or cleaning.
Register for free to receive regular e-mail alerts of public sector opportunities. www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk