Understanding The Markets And Identifying Opportunities

In Europe and the UK, all tendering opportunities by public bodies need to be announced through the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)

. SMEs and micro-SMEs also keep an eye on the OJEU to get access to the latest public contracts. However, there are other sources available that can keep SMEs up to date with new tenders.

Small and medium-sized enterprises aiming to have government bodies as their clients are always scanning public tendering opportunities. But what if a tender opportunity from the public sector, suitable to your enterprise, is not announced through the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)?

Recent actions by the European Commission against Member States have made it clear that the public body has to ensure a certain degree of advertising. The Commission has referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law, where it has been stated quite clearly that in the scenario where the financial sum involved falls below the EU Procurement Directives thresholds, the contracting authority must now ensure a degree of advertising.

Spreading the word about the contracting opportunity is necessary to ensure that there is the right amount of competition for bidders, that there can be no cases of discrimination on the grounds of nationality and to allow the impartiality of its procurement procedures to be reviewed.

The scope and form of advertising is defined by two elements:

1. The nature of the service.

2. The amount of interest the contract will draw from local, national or EU-wide service providers.

Now that you know that the European Commission has made it mandatory for public bodies to advertise, you have the right to know about all contract opportunities as a SME owner.

Do not hesitate to approach your local public authorities and ask them if they are complying with the directives of the ECJ judgment. In other words, get to know if they are advertising all lower-value contract opportunities openly or not. In Scotland, the Scottish Contract Regulations have interpreted the EU Procurement Directives into Scottish law. This has now made it mandatory for government bodies in Scotland to openly advertise their lower-value contracts.

So where can you keep track of public tenders that are best suited to SMEs? Apart from the OJEU, you can find lower-value tendering opportunities in web-based contract notice service the Supply National SME Engagement Programme. This programme provides free access to lower-value contracts within a suppliers local area. You can keep track of these announcements and many more opportunities by subscribing to services like Contrax Weekly and Tracker.

Some other sources to be aware of are the public authorities own websites. For example, any news regarding NHS Procurement can be taken from the official NHS website. By being aware and thinking laterally, no one can stop you from grabbing a tendering opportunity and making the winning bid!

by: Fiona Campbell

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