The number of public-sector contract awards being won by home companies through the Public Contracts Scotland online portal has increased from 6,000 to more than 12,000 in two years, the Scottish government has said.
Ahead of the National Public Procurement Conference being staged at Glasgow's Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre today, the government said measures implemented in 2011 to simplify procurement processes were "giving companies the opportunity to gain access to public contracts and the £10 billion the public sector spends annually".
It said the PCS portal now has more than 65,000 supplier registrations, of which 86 per cent are small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), implying an increasing share of the cake for the sector which makes up more than 99 per cent of Scotland's business population. The government said that next month the Glasgow Business Portal will be absorbed into the PCS portal "to make it even easier for businesses to search for and bid for all public-contract opportunities in Scotland".
The Herald's SME-SOS campaign, launched in May, highlighted the £10 billion spend and the concerns of business groups that public procurement remains skewed in favour of large and non-Scottish companies, to the detriment of the economy. It cited leeway in European tendering rules which is not being exploited, the exclusion of a range of quasi-public bodies from this year's Procurement Reform Bill, and the patchy record of local authorities in making it easier for SMEs to bid.
Finance Secretary John Swinney said yesterday that the new figures underline a commitment to making Scotland "the best place in Europe to do business with the public sector" and that Scotland's model of procurement is "recognised internationally as a benchmark of excellence".
Community-benefit clauses, which make training, employment and investment in local communities a contractual requirement, had already created more than 3,500 apprenticeships and training opportunities since 2008 and were embedded in the new legislation.
He said that new statutory guidance would enable public bodies "to evaluate each contractor's approach to workforce-related matters, including paying the living wage".
In June, the Scottish government announced a £360,000 boost for its Supplier Development Programme to help 2,200 more businesses "develop their digital capability and be more efficient in bidding and fulfilling public contracts".
Stuart McKinnon, policy officer at the Federation of Small Businesses , said "The Public Contracts Scotland portal deserves plaudits not only because it makes contracts easy to find but also as it allows us to measure with whom the public sector is spending money.
"As a larger proportion of contracts are posted on the portal, more (small) Scottish businesses will win work through it."
Craig Frew, director of Kirkcaldy-based Frew Conservation, said:"PCS offers a direct route for us to access relevant contract opportunities and compete on a level playing field with larger competitors."
But Mr McKinnon said firms with fewer than ten employees - these companies account for 94 per cent of businesses and 29 per cent of employment in Scotland - received only around four per cent of the cake in 2013, and that has to be increased.
Mr McKinnon said: "To do that, we need to simplify and standardise processes and unbundle contracts."
The Bill was "a good first step but there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that we use the public sector's purchasing power to maximum effect".
Garry Clark, head of policy at the Scottish Chambers, said that despite the progress, current processes still deterred a high proportion of smaller businesses from bidding.
Mr Clark said: "The proof of the pudding will be in demonstrating that SMEs are benefitting. It needs to be about getting more businesses not just engaged but winning contracts."
He said The Herald's campaign has been welcomed warmly by business. He said: "It has been great to have a focus on an area that has been exercising us for many years and where the Scottish government is spending an awful lot of money."
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