EUROPEAN guidelines have
been issued to encourage authorities
across the Continent
to make their public procurement
practices more accessible
to small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs).
As a result of the Small Business
Act, a code of best practice
has been created to help
SMEs deal with the problems
they face with public procurement,
and improve their access
to public sector contracts.
It has been hailed as a significant
breakthrough for potentially
millions of small businesses,
and could be particularly
important to the Government
achieving its target of
awarding 30 per cent of all public
work to SMEs.
The development is also a
boost for the Buy North-East
campaign, run by The Northern
Echo and the North
East Chamber of Commerce
(NECC), which aims to encourage
local authorities to
embrace the benefits of contracting
services from the region's
SMEs.
NECC research has shown
the regional economy would
grow by £1.35bn, and 6,000 jobs
would be created, if the public
sector spent an extra one per
cent a year until 2016 contracting
services from the North-
East.
Andrew Sugden, director of
membership and policy at
NECC, said: "The firm statement
that the EU procurement
rules need not act as a barrier
for smaller businesses accessing
public contracts is significant,
and gives a real boost to
the Buy North-East campaign.
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"For too long we've seen
buyers in the public sector genuinely
worried that to be
small-firm friendly or use criteria
other than simply the
lowest price is a breach of EU
rules.
"This announcement makes
it clear that that is not the case,
and supports our position that
intelligent public procurement
can have a tremendous economic
and environmental benefit
to the North-East."
The code of practice looks to
deal with, and find solutions to,
common problems found by
SMEs, including making information
more understandable,
reducing administrative burden
and giving sufficient time
to draw up tenders.
Public procurement in the
European Union - which includes
the purchase of goods,
services and public works by
governments and public utilities
and authorities - is worth
an estimated 1,800bn euros
(£1,428bn).
Charlie McCreevy, European
internal market and services
commissioner, said: "Small
and medium companies are
the backbone of the EU economy.
In order to make the most
of their potential for job creation,
growth and innovation,
their access to public procurement
markets should be facilitated.
"This is the first time that
the relevant procurement
rules and practices are gathered
in a single document on
how this can be done in the
best way."
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