With ASKAR SHEIBANI

Chair, DBF and CEO - Comtek Network Systems UK Ltd

Public Sector procurement and its daunting bureaucratic processes are no longer fit for purpose during the Covid-19 economic conditions...

The UK Government has budgeted to spend over £900billion for the year 2021. A massive proportion of this budget will be used on Public Procurement (the process by which public authorities, such as government departments or local authorities, purchase work, goods or services from companies).

Unfortunately, small businesses receive very little benefit from the public sector procurement process and the rules governing it are designed to benefit large, well-established businesses. A notable example of this being Carillion plc, who in recent years went bust - resulting in potentially costing taxpayers well over £200million, destroying hundreds of small businesses and the livelihoods of many self-employed individuals.

It is almost impossible for the majority of small businesses to apply and be successful in any Public Sector Framework contract with its associated mountain of complex bureaucracy. Public Sector Framework contracts have been designed to be awarded for a period of four years, hence locking out all competition during this timeframe and providing poor value for the taxpayers. This is scandalous and has to be stopped.

Approximately 99.3 per cent of private businesses in the UK are small businesses. They are the backbone of the UK's economy, providing two thirds of the employment in the country. They are innovative and are embedded within the communities in which they live. The vast majority of small businesses are home-grown - some with huge growth potential.

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted incalculable damage to this sector of our economy. Public procurement is one of the most effective tools our governments have to utilise to save and revive our small businesses. The UK and Welsh governments must urgently modify their existing outdated procurement rules and legislate new Covid-19 based procedures. They must remove all of the bureaucratic barriers, such as (US company) Dun & Bradstreet's rigid financial scoring system which prevents most of our struggling small businesses from succeeding in their bids.

The social benefits that small businesses bring into our communities in North Wales has to be recognised as a significant and decisive scoring point in the decision as to who to award the contract to. They must allocate at least 50 per cent of the scoring points on enterprises that are community-based small businesses. The new Covid-19 procurement rules must include a legally binding condition that, when a large corporate is to be awarded a contract, they must employ our locally based human resources and small businesses as their preferred suppliers where possible.

We will beat the Covid-19 economic shock as long as we all stick together, support our local businesses and procure locally. For this to happen we need the UK and Welsh governments, our six local authorities in North Wales, the NHS, police, large corporations, housing associations, education establishments and the rest of the public sector to urgently relax and replace their existing, not-fit-for-purpose, PSP model with more appropriate Covid-19 procurement rules.