Chamber calls on government to reduce 'burden' of public procurement process

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Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce has written to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, asking him to standardise the public sector procurement process for construction firms. 

In the letter, Chamber President, Phil Cusack, calls on government to make it compulsory for all public sector bodies and frameworks to adopt the Publicly Available Specification, known as PAS91:2013, which is a standard set of questions used by buyers procuring goods or services.

Following an extensive period of engagement with construction sector members of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on the topic of procurement, Cusack writes that the time and resources committed to producing a tender document for public sector procurement are excessive and onerous and becoming an increasing burden for firms.

He says: “Many public sector bodies word their questions differently whilst trying to ascertain the same information, forcing businesses to rewrite and reframe answers to which they should be able to supply an identical response. There is also a reported increase in the amount of supporting evidence being requested.”

Cusack states that the time and resources committed to producing a response to a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) are wasted for those companies that are unsuccessful.

He continues: “This has the potential to lead to a public sector investment having a net negative effect on the economy, as the amount lost through this process can exceed the potential profit from the delivery of the contract. This is particularly true where frameworks fail to deliver sufficient volumes of business to justify the total costs of industry bidding for them in the first place, as even those who are successful are left with little or no work to recoup their costs.”

To further assist firms with the public procurement process, Cusack also calls on government to investigate the benefits to both their own procurement staff and to businesses competing for public contracts of the implementation of, and compulsory use of, a centralised database populated by those who wish to tender for public sector work. The emphasis would then fall on businesses registered on the system to ensure the information is up to date.

The Chamber awaits a response from the Cabinet Office.