SFA urges govt to look again at new procurement plan

The Small Firms Association (SFA) is urging the government to look again at its plan for a revised public procurement system, saying it is "detrimental" to the work of small businesses around the country.

Chairman of the organisation, AJ Noonan, has already met with minister Brian Hayes to discuss this issue after concerns were raised by owners.

And he believes that small businesses could be prohibited from tendering for public contracts as the deals become "large-scale" to save the state money in procuring goods and services.

Mr Noonan explained that the knock-on effect could be massive, saying: "New government policy on Procurement has the potential to eliminate small businesses from the tendering process, resulting in business closures, job losses, regional imbalance and ultimately less competition in the marketplace."

A recent study by SFA revealed that 82 per cent of the firms it questioned said that the tendering process placing emphasis on price and not value for value is either a major or minor difficulty.

Posted by Emily Smith

Date published 18 Feb 2013 | Last updated 28 Jan 2013