English government procurement rules too inflexible for most businesses

October 18, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Editorial, England 

The English government has been trying to expand the participation of small businesses in its procurements. Now a survey of 500 small and medium businesses finds that most are not willing to make the effort to bid on government work due to the complexity and formality of the procurement process. This has also been a criticism in the US. The government RFP, proposal and evaluation process is too complicated most businesses to make the effort. One advantage that the US does have over the UK is that they do not charge companies for access to their listings of available contracts. Most of that is now done via the web for free.

See this article in printweek.com for more.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Scotland’s government snipes over CV delays

June 23, 2008 by Dagpotter · 1 Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, VT Group, production program 

Worried about the effect on their workforce, Scottish MPs criticized the English government for not moving fast enough to award the new CV construction contract. For more see the BBC here. The two carriers will be built primarily in Scottish shipyards and will cost over 4 billion Pounds. Scotland is worried that with a possible change in the future constitutional relationship between the two countries may make the British government turn to English yards for the work. The Scottish defence industry is heavily dependent on English orders, not having had much luck securing foreign work. More to come on this, I am sure.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,