New guidelines for public contracts will even the playing field for Donegal SME’s – Blaney

New guidelines issued by the Government for public contract procurement will help to level the playing field for small to medium sized enterprises and open more doors for them to compete for Government contracts.

That’s according to Donegal North East Fianna Fáil TD Niall Blaney, who has been working to secure fairer conditions for SMEs.

“New guidelines have now been issued by the Department of Finance to ensure that SMEs are not unfairly hindered in competing for public contracts.”

“Until now, small firms have found it tough to complete and this has been an issue that I have been actively working on with my colleagues the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan TD and the Minister for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary TD.”

“Under the new guidelines issued this week, all advertised contracts up to €250,000 for works and €125,000 for supplies and general services must now be open to all potential tenderers without a prequalification process.”

“This will make it a lot easier for local, small firms to tender for works such as the summer works scheme, which provides a lot of works around the county.”

“The threshold for advertising supplies and general services on the Government’s public procurement website www.etenders.gov.ie has also been halved from €50,000 to €25,000.”

“The guidelines have been changed prohibiting public bodies from making those who wish to enter public competitions pay to do so. The new rules will also get rid of more red tape for SME’s as a tenderer will only have to submit the necessary documentation when they are close to being awarded a contract. This will reduce the amount of paperwork involved in submitting tenders, considerably easing the administrative burden on businesses bidding for public contracts.”

“These new rules make it easier and less costly to tender for public contracts. They reduce the burden on SME’s whilst at the same time they still ensure the best value for money for the taxpayer. I am hopeful that this will level the playing field for Donegal companies and open up more doors for them to win Government contracts.”

“I accept that there are still some anomalies with some larger contracts but I know that both Minister Lenihan and Calleary are working on that and I expect further news from them on this soon,” concluded Niall Blaney TD.