Changes to eTenders Website:  Since 28th October 2010, suppliers expressing interest in opportunities on the eTenders website will no longer receive the tender documents by email. Suppliers must now express interest in an opportunity and then manually download the tender documents from their "Interest List".The 2Mb per document limit associated with electronic Postbox responses has been amended. Suppliers may now upload individual documents of 10Mb in size, with a combined limit for response documents of 30Mb per tender.

NPPPU:  The National Public Procurement Operations Unit is working on further reforms of the tendering system. Some 48,800 suppliers are now registered with eTenders along with 2,100 awarding authorities. 

Size of Market: With current cutbacks , the value of Ireland’s public procurement market has fallen to some €15 billion (from €19 billion in 2007). In the UK and Northern Ireland the market has grown to £200 billion, but this is expected to fall as budget cutbacks are implemented. There were some 150,000 contracts advertised EU-wide last year to a value of around 3% of EU GDP.

SBRI: Enterprise Ireland is working on an initiative similar to the UK’s Small Business Research Initiative, which aims to use public procurement to drive innovation. Typically, competitions are run for ideas that result in short-term development contracts.

UK (and Northern Ireland) Reforms: The UK’s new Efficiency and Reform Group has had an immediate impact on public contracts. Work is underway to stop or de-scope ICT contracts worth a £1 billion; tenders for all new non-essential website, marketing and advertising have been suspended; contracts with key suppliers are being renegotiated; all consultancies valued at more than £20,000 now require Ministerial approval; and, apart from proven commercial secrets full details of awarded contracts will be published.

SMEs: Additional actions have been announced to improve the situation of UK and Northern Ireland SMEs tendering for UK public contracts. For example, a standard pre-qualification questionnaire will apply across central government from December 2010; the option of suppliers having  to submit just one PQQ is being investigated; the launch in March 2011 of Contracts Finder, a free facility where all procurement opportunities, including sub-contracts, will be published; and a legal requirement that all SMEs are paid within 30 days. Francis Maude, the Minister in the Cabinet Office responsible for procurement said it is the UK Government’s target that 25% of all public contracts will be awarded to SMEs. 

e-procurement: The European Commission is seeking views about embedding e-procurement  as part of the general e-Government agenda. If you want to keep ahead of the curve contribute to the shaping of EU (and national) policy as it is clear electronic procurement is an emerging trend. The Commission is offering its e-CERTIS database which provides an on-line storehouse of the documents that are most frequently requested.