Responds of the questionnaire regarding public sector contracting and SMEs

The policymakers are:  Poland – PPO the Public Procurement Office  Belgium - Service public Fédéral Personnel et Organisation (SPF P&O)  Ireland - National Public Procurement Policy Unit (NPPPU)  Turkey – PPA The Public Procurement Authority  United Kingdom - - Office of Government Commerce, OGC, does not let framework agreements itself Those who make and conclude framework agreements/contracts  Italy – Consip  France  Austria – BBG  Sweden – Statskontoret

Coordination and central purchasing bodies  UK, France and Ireland either have new programs or are reviewing/changing their procurement organizations  France, Italy, Sweden and Austria have some kind of central procurement organization  Initiatives at local sector in Poland and in some sectors in Ireland.

Framework design and how many suppliers to let to  Ireland: Single supplier draw down contract  Austria: one frame contract to several parallel framework agreements  Most frequent respond is three and upwards when allowing more than one supplier Contract time length  Fast obsolete products - usually shorter  If the suppliers have to invest - usually longer  Usually longer for services than goods  One single shot to five years (Belgium)

Framework contracts / agreements in use? Framework agreements:  In the form of On line catalogues for a particular class of good (UK)  Only in the “utilities” sector (Poland)  Consultancy, such as assessment centers, coaching activities etc (Belgium)  Stationery, furniture, PCs and related supplies, telecommunications, printed products, cars, copiers and fax, paper, stamping machines, toner (France)  Telephone and communication Goods, Transport Services, Mattresses, laundry and School accessories (Austria)  About 100 categories, from eye-wear to cars to concultancy and ICTproducts (Sweden)  Frame contracts for 31 categories (Consip)  Single draw-down contracts primarily for ICT goods and services (Ireland)

Do SMEs participate in public procurement?  Well represented in some catalogues – including 38% of the S CAT framework (UK)  Strong participation in general sealed-bid auctions and for various categories (Ireland)  In our auctions especially for: furniture, transport, food, telecommunication goods (Austria)  A lot of SMEs for provisions of services like cleaning, caretaking, auditing (France)  16% participated as main contractor, 4% as subcontractor (2002 Poland)

Study of representation of SME:s in framework agreements  Why? Framework agreements have been said to restrict participation of SME:s.  Study of all economic operators with framework agreements in the coordination system for government procurement.  264 individual economic operators with individual framework agreements identified.

Conclusion  Economic operators are, according to size, evenly divided in the framework agreements.  The framework agreements operated in the coordination system are not generally restrictive to SME:s participation.  Are we/should we be satisfied? No!

Are SMEs encouraged to participate and in what ways? 1. Participation requirements:  Guarantees of turnover and grouping of SMEs (Consip) 2. Procurement strategies  Geographical / qualitative lots  Reduction of frame contract length (Consip)  Have so called A and B suppliers within the same agreement (Statskontoret)  Combinatorial auction with package bidding” in multi-lot auctions (Consip) 3. Policies, assistance and guiding 4. Tools as Marketplaces for procurement below the threshold values (Consip) 5. Framework agreements: may foster SMEs participation as there is second stage competition (BBG)