New Rules for Public Procurement benefit SME's

New rules in public procurement designed to facilitate SME participation in public procurement were introduced by the Department of Finance in August 2010.

Background

The government recognises that the small and medium (SME) sector is very important to the economy and that public procurement can be an important source of business for SMEs.

In the present economic climate, the competition for public contracts has intensified and some SMEs are finding it more difficult to win such business. The government has stated that SMEs are not to be hindered in competing for contracts that they could perform effectively.

The changes

• There will be more contracts advertised on e-tenders, as the threshold for advertising has been reduced from €125,000 to €25,000.

• There will be less ‘framework agreements’ where work is awarded to a large business for a lengthy period.

• Although ‘open tendering’ is encouraged price criteria will be structured such that qualitative criteria (experience, personnel and methodology) will be worth more that 50% of the Request for Tender.

• Much of the documentary evidence on a tenderer’s capacity should no longer be sought by the contracting authority early on in the tendering process but should only be sought if the tenderer is ‘short listed’.

• The levels of suitability criteria (turnover) must be both justifiable and proportionate to the needs of the contract.

 

The changes above will lead to more opportunities for SME’s to win public contracts.

For further information please contact Brian Dignam, Partner OSK