subject: Smes Can Succeed In Public Procurement Too [print this page] Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK and Ireland must come forward and seize the opportunity to provide supplies and services to public sector bodies. To have the public sector as your customer will be a huge boost for your business. Read on to know what is being done to encourage and assist SMEs to bid for public contracts.
The past few years have been great for small businesses looking to serve the government. This has been achieved due to the efforts of the European Commission (which governs the public procurement process across Europe) and the governments of participating Member States. The state of SMEs was studied and the findings presented a picture of where things stood for SMEs and what they needed to do to bid successfully for public tenders.
* As defined by the European Commission, an SME is a business with:
* fewer than 250 employees;
* an annual turnover of up to 50 million;
* a balance sheet total of no more than 43 million.
Figures released by the European Commission show that 99% of the enterprises in Europe are SMEs, a figure that is also true for the UK and Ireland. EU-wide, there are more tha 23 million SMEs, providing 75 million jobs, so that about 80% of employment in Europe is provided by SMEs.
As you can see from these parameters, your company too falls in the SME category. Now you see your small business is an important part of the economy, destined to play a central role in achieving the goals of growth and employment.
The European Commission realises the huge potential and importance of SMEs and wants a sizeable proportion of public sector procurement contracts with a value less than 250,000 to be awarded to SMEs. Moving towards achieving this goal, the Commission has recently issued specific guidelines to be followed by public bodies, on how to award low-value contracts in a fair manner.
These low-value contracts do not come under the EU Directives on public procurement, but it is expected that the award of such contracts is undertaken in accordance with the market principles of transparency and non-discrimination. Business experts have interpreted this move by the Commission as a clear sign of its intention to help SMEs to tender for and win contracts across all Member States, including the UK and Ireland.
The European Commission shed further light on how SMEs can play a central role in growth and employment. For this the Commission directed the EU to promote higher levels of entrepreneurship and innovation in these enterprises. This means the Member State governments are required to review and modernise their policies to ensure an environment is created in which SMEs can flourish and contribute to higher levels of socioeconomic cohesion.
Following the directives of the Commission, the Coalition Government is now working towards the goal of ensuring that SMEs win 25 per cent of all public sector contracts,
Local authorities in England and devolved governments in Wales and Scotland have now begun awarding thousands of low-value contracts to small businesses like yours. Do not let another opportunity go by go ahead and make the winning bid.
