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Government tenders site attracts criticism

Tom Hall, PrintWeek, 29 August 2008

A government tenders website that charges up to £750 for annual membership has faced renewed criticism from printers and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Supply2.gov.uk, a UK public sector site set up for businesses to apply for lower value tenders, has been slammed for its charges and complicated navigation.

Most recently, the site advertised courses on how to tender for public sector contracts, charging £120 to teach businesses how to use its portal and understand the documentation used in public sector tendering.

The move comes despite chancellor Alistair Darling’s promise to make tendering easier for small businesses. SMEs can currently only use the site for free if they search for tenders in their local area or opt for a three-month trial of the full service.

The FSB has criticised the charges and called for permanently free access for small businesses, as well as improved channels of information so SMEs can easily know when contracts are up for tender.

A spokesman for the FSB told PrintWeek: When we supported the site, it was with the caveat that it be made free to all small businesses and be more open and accountable.

Paul Manning, account director at Printflow, has also hit out at the tendering system. He said: I am signed up to Supply2.gov.uk, but find it very confusing and I have to pay to see any tenders that are not local to me. The system leaves much to be desired.

In July this year, the NHS’s print tenders came under fire by some in the print industry for being poorly administered and time wasting.

No one at Supply2.gov.uk was available to comment as PrintWeek went to press.

Comments

DM DEESON - 29 August 2008

Couldn't agree more with Paul Manning. The government has the bloody cheek to charge us for access to public contract information. Tendering for public contracts is a lottery any way and the stupid hoops that they make you jump through puts small businesses off applying. Alaistair Darling and the government have made it no easier to tender for public work. All talk and no action as usual. It's a farce!

Adrian Clark - 29 August 2008

I couldn’t agree more with Paul either.

All tenders are a complete pain, whether it be for small or large jobs, chargeable or free for that matter. We will not pay to take part, Perhaps if no one did, then they would have to re think?

The tender process is the worst way to purchase print anyway. The amount of time it takes to fill tenders in, I have to ask myself is it really worth it? If you talk with the end user, assuming you can, they would rather deal direct with a printer, as print is a bespoke made to measure product, not something you can simply buy off a shelf. The printer can often advise better solutions and economies, how many Tendered specs do you see that are ridiculous? Auctions are not much better either!

The last tender I looked at had 3 questionnaires, with over 200 questions to answer, all for a job probably worth less than £80k including paper. One question appeared 4 times, 15 made no sense, and the majority of questions related more to equal opportunities, health and safety and the environment, rather than whether I had the right equipment and quality or not.

Some tenders you are expected to fill in before you see the spec, just to see if you are good enough to be able to offer a quotation.

I accept the fact that the purchase has to be fair, honest and open, but certainly in web offset territory some of the questions defy belief?

Gordon, if you are reading this please “have a word”

I feel better for getting that off my chest!

Adrian Clark

Southernprint.

Print Spectator - 29 August 2008

Completely agree.

The tender process simply emphasises how the buying process has been deskilled. The ludicrous and irrelevant information that is requested makes us simply not bother. Its not even properly done. The questions are so ill informed and out of date its laughable.

There are some genuine customers out there who retain skill and ability and due care in the buying process, but the majority of government tenders are a shambles. If suppliers continue to go to the wall at the rate they are doing currently, the supply/demand ratio will correct and printers will simply not bother trying to deal with these disorganised job justifiers.

Phew! Yep, I feel better now too!

Matthew Parker - 30 August 2008

The easy way to prevent suppliers wasting time is to have an online evaluation form that asks key questions first. So if ISO14001 is an essential requirement for the supply base, if a printer clicks "no" they are immediately informed that they will not qualify and do not have to waste time on the rest of the process.

If training is needed, then the process is clearly over complicated. I also believe that it is unethical to charge for either training or website membership.

Matthew Parker

www.printandprocurement.com

Jon Pinches - 03 September 2008

Hoorah! The voice of common sense is heard at last.

This particular tender website, 'Supply2.gov.uk', must be the most complicated and deliberately disingenuous and least helpful alert services available. It delivers nothing except the promise of future business and opportunity if you pay it's excessive charges.

I feel the chump now, after having subscribed to its introductory level 'geographical' region alerts, for the sum of £99.00 + vat. The regions available are so narrow as to be almost completely useless. But, guess what, upgrade by a further £380.00 + vat and they'll deliver what should have been for free in the first instance!

This is simply sharp practice. Don't waste your time by subscribing and leave this one well alone.

Phew. Yep, off my chest and I feel a lot better. (Still £99.00 + vat worse off, however!)

Jon Pinches. www.dsicmmgroup.com