Manifesto Ask: Procurement: Simple, Transparent and Open
This is Part 8 in a blog series on the Crowd-Sourced Cultural Manifesto for 2021. The culture sector has collaborated on 8 Asks in advance of the Scottish Parliament Elections in May 2021.
Procurement: Increase opportunities for local enterprises and for the self-employed by transforming procurement into a simple, transparent and open system that encourages local partnerships and consortiums; aligns structure and process with equality of opportunity.
Procurement should be opened up to freelancers, partnerships and consortiums. The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 includes a requirement for Sustainable Procurement, and a duty to consider Community Benefits throughout the procurement process. This means that procurement has to offer benefits and this is welcomed, though we must also actively encourage self-employed people, partnerships and local consortiums to be involved.
Some local authorities have introduced Supplier Development Programmes and websites to support SMEs within the procurement process. One authority also held a Business Gateway Workshop on Winning Public Procurement to provide information and practical sessions to businesses on finding and tendering for contracts. This is positive though in the majority of areas local authorities do not have a proactive approach to encouraging freelancers, partnerships and local consortiums.
We therefore call on the next Parliament to streamline a universal, simple, transparent and open system that encourages local partnerships and consortiums; to align structure and process with equality of opportunity across Scotland.
Manifesto 2021
Read the Full Manifesto on our website here.
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