New guidelines on Public Contracts

Date: 26/08/2010
Posted by: Darragh

SMES TO BENEFIT FROM NEW GUIDELINES ON PUBLIC CONTRACTS

I welcome new guidelines concerning the awarding of Government contracts which will open the door for SMEs to compete and cut red tape for the sector.

Under the new guidelines from the Department of Finance all advertised contracts up to €250,000 for works and €125,000 for supplies and general services must now be open to all potential tenderers without a prequalification process.

I have been working closely with the SME sector and one of the issues raised with me is that small firms have found it very difficult to complete in the public procurement process. These new guidelines ensure small firms can tender for works including those under the summer works scheme. The threshold for advertising supplies and general services on the Government's public procurement website www.etenders.gov.ie has also been halved from €50,000 to €25,000.

Crucially public bodies are now prohibited from making companies pay to enter public competitions for contracts. This has been identified as a particular barrier for small businesses and I believe this change is very important.

The Government is working to make it easier for companies in the SME sector to retain staff, win new business and grow their operations. These new guidelines are just one change I see as being really important for SMEs.

The new guidelines state that ‘contracting authorities should encourage new businesses particularly to tender for smaller public contracts so that they can establish a track record which will help them to progress to competing in time for larger public and private sector contracts'. I believe this vision for SME participation in the public contracts arena will be welcomed in the sector.

I'm also glad to see that these guidelines ease the administrative burden on firms as a tenderer will only be required to submit the necessary paperwork closer to the time that the decision on awarding the contract being made.