Chambers Ireland criticises public sector tendering process

CIVIL servants spending millions of euro on Government supplies and services do not have the specialist purchasing skills to do the work, Chambers Ireland alleged last night.

Chambers Ireland has called for a complete overhaul of the procurement and tendering process with a view to helping more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) win tendered contracts.

Director of policy at Chambers Ireland Seán Murphy said: “International experience has indicated the importance of government contracts to SMEs, yet in Ireland we are not doing enough to help small businesses win Government tenders.”

This results in costs of sales that are too high for SMEs, thus edging many potential applicants out of the market.”

Mr Murphy argues that to give SMEs a fair chance in the tendering process, public servants must be supported in developing a less conservative outlook on purchasing decisions.

“Public sector procurement officers have heretofore adopted a risk-averse approach as they are more comfortable dealing with larger entities — the result being that the positive aspects of working with SMEs are often overlooked.

“Contributing to this conservative approach is the practice of charging non-specialist civil servants with the responsibility for purchasing specialist services even though they do not have the requisite skills or confidence,” he said.

Mr Murphy said the Government must provide specialist training for public servants to enable them to make informed decisions.

He said the poor usability of the e-tender website is also a prohibitive issue for SMEs.

“Keyword tagging on the eTenders website, for example, which is in place to enable searches for related tenders is particularly poor and the requirements are often poorly defined and open to varying interpretations,” he continued.