Posts Tagged ‘EU Procurement Thresholds’

A Quarter of UK Government Contracts to be Awarded to Small Businesses!

July 23rd, 2010 by Tony Zemaitis | 3 Comments | Filed in PQQ, Public Sector Tenders, Tenders

Vince Cable, Business Secretary, says that a quarter of public sector contracts are to go to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Government recognises that small businesses struggle with existing government procurement processes (including documentation and other requirements / qualifications / accreditations).

He said: “Our policy is to ensure that 25 per cent of public procurement goes to the small business sector. We need to give access through small-scale procurement.”

We have seen blatant discrimination against SMEs by some public sector organisations (eg discriminating specifically on size: requiring that a contract must not represent more than 8% of your turnover)… not to mention the requirement to have so many policies / accreditations and the ability to answer very complex questions on business management.

So it will be interesting to see how this works out.

Your views, experiences and coments are most welcome.

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TED Tenders Electronic Daily – Website Updated

May 21st, 2010 by Tony Zemaitis | 2 Comments | Filed in PQQ, Public Sector Tenders, Tenders

TED is the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union – the website that shows all the high value public sector tenders that by law must be advertised.

The great thing is that you can search TED to see if there are any suitable high-value tenders in your market / area and it’s completely free!

The interface has recently changed slightly so we’ve published some new instructions for a simple / quick search along with some other hints and tips on finding public sector tenders for free.

Happy searching!

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UK Public Sector to Flag Contract Opportunities that are Suitable for SMEs

April 12th, 2010 by Tony Zemaitis | No Comments | Filed in PQQ, Public Sector Tenders, Tenders

“Tendering opportunities thought especially suitable for SMEs or consortia of SMEs should be flagged by the procurer during the advertising process.”

This was a key recommendation in “Accelerating the SME Economic Engine” (The Glover Report).

The OGC has now published Small Supplier Big Opportunity / Flagging your Contracts to SMEs which asks public sector procurement to follow this by flagging opportunities deemed suitable for SMEs.

Reasons for SME flagging will include:

  • Strong SME market presence
  • Low contract value / volume
  • Innovative solutions
  • Tailored product / service
  • Local delivery
  • Limited scales economies
  • Unregulated market

It’ll be interesting to see how it works.

Please post any thoughts or experience of this.

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New EU Procurement Thresholds for Tenders

February 3rd, 2010 by Tony Zemaitis | 2 Comments | Filed in PQQ, Public Sector Tenders, Tenders

New advertising thresholds were published on 1 January 2010 which will apply for two years.

These values dictate whether a contract (tender) will be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and the website TED ie across the EU. Contracts with lower values are not required to be advertised in the OJEU – generally referred to as ‘lower-value’. Supply2.gov.uk is the national advertising platform for ‘lower-value’ opportunities. See blog – How to Find Public Sector Tenders for Free.

View the revised EU thresholds at supply2.gov or at the OGC

NB as shown in our Fit to Tender Checklist, often buyers will be checking that the tender contract value does not exceed 20-30% of the tendering company’s turnover (NB this is a guide, not a rule). Consider this when qualifying which tenders to go for.

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