Hope for small businesses
Minister of State Joseph Harmon
Minister of State Joseph Harmon

…gov’t to roll out procurement programme in January

CABINET has approved the implementation of a Small Business Procurement Programme by the Ministry of Business in keeping with the Small Business Act of 2004, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon announced on Friday.

Addressing reporters during his post-cabinet media briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency, the state minister said the decision to implement the programme by January 1, 2019, in keeping with Section 11 (1) of the Small Business Act of 2004, was made when cabinet met last Tuesday.

Section 11 (1) of the Small Business Act mandates the government to ensure that at least 20 percent of the procurement of goods and services it requires is obtained from small businesses. Also under the Act, the Small Business Council is required to prepare a Small Business Procurement Programme annually.

With the programme taking effect by January, 2019, Minister Harmon believes that small businesses will be better positioned to benefit from the public procurement system.

“This programme will ensure that small businesses have their fair access to government procurement opportunities through a transparent and efficient process and will also enhance the economic impact of public spending,” the state minister said.

He noted that forming part of the approved programme are three measures. “A basic set aside measure for all government procurement – that is, goods, services and works up to $30M; a set aside for some contracting measures for all government procurement between $30M and $200M; and all ministries, agencies and regional authorities will participate in the implementation of the programme,” he outlined.

Specifically, the ministries, agencies and regional authorities will be required to provide annually projects of the value of small business procurement by sectors based on the annual procurement plans to the Small Business Bureau.

It was noted that in order to benefit from the Small Business Procurement Programme, small businesses would be required to register with the Small Business Bureau.

Last month, Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin said that the Small Business Procurement Programme has several components, those include, capacity building and technical training; data gathering; and procurement accessibility.

“One has to do with capacity building which is training small businesses for accessing procurement and understanding the procurement system and what the requirements are and what they would have to do to submit tenders or quotations etcetera.”

“The other also is technical training that will actually make them a little more proficient in what they do, whatever goods or services they provide,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the next component deals with the measurement of the level of public procurement going to small businesses which the government is carefully working to develop.

“That is quite complex and that is probably the biggest sticking point right now. We have to have a system that will allow regular reporting so that every quarter we can say to the public this is the level of procurement in small businesses for that quarter.”

“So, that involves being able to identify small businesses whenever they procure whether it’s at the ministry level, whether it’s at the level of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board or whether it’s at the regional procurement level. We have to be able to pull that data together occupying the system to get that data collected in the first place,” Gaskin stated.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Small Business Bureau (SBB), Dr. Lowell Porter, like Minister Harmon, has underscored the importance of small businesses registering with the Small Business Bureau to tap into the programme.

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