I made strong representations last April to the Department of the Taoiseach and Government to the effect that major changes needed to be made to procurement rules in order to help Irish SMEs win more tenders.
Happily, I can report that many of the ideas in the Ten Point Plan I recommended have been adopted as Government policy.
The Department of Finance has informed all public bodies, with immediate effect, that the following measures are to be introduced.
- All contacts for supplies and non–construction services over a value of €25,000 must be published on eTenders (the current threshold is €50,000). This will increase greatly the number of published tenders.
- There will be no more pre-qualification requirements under the restricted procedure for tenders of a value of less than €125,000; all such tenders will be considered under the open procedure. This will speed up decision-making and cut down on paperwork.
- Supporting documentation about a bidder’s financial and technical capacity will need to be provided only when a tenderer is short-listed.
- The setting of SME suitability criteria must be far more flexible, and must be ‘relevant and proportionate’.
- Much more flexibility will be introduced to encourage small and start-up companies, for example by not setting disproportionately high turnover thresholds, nor requiring three years of fully audited accounts.
- All contracting bodies are now required to constructively de-brief all tenderers (and not just those above the EU threshold) in a comprehensive manner in full compliance with current guidelines.
- For certain requirements, public authorities have been encouraged to do market research before they publish tenders.
Also note that electronic tendering will become the norm.
Public contractors have been instructed not to use arrangements (such as Supply Line) which involve potential tenderers having to pay to access tender competitions. This is a significant change.
The splitting of tenders into lots is also encouraged for the first time.
Circular 10-10 should be studied carefully as it is the New Deal for Irish SMEs seeking to win business by public tendering.
The quick response to my representations (and from others no doubt) is welcomed news for those of us in the bid managment community who want to see easier access for SMEs and smarter and slicker procedures. We now have a level playing field.
Well done to Robert Watt and his colleagues responsible for procurement at the Department of Finance.
