General Secretary Claes Norgren in the Swedish ’Konkurrensverket’ pointed out in a talk recently
the importance of giving newly established and innovative companies the
opportunity to take part in tender competitions. It is the employers who have
the responsibility to shape the tender documents and to complete the various
processes in such a way that attracts the suppliers to participate in the
competition. Norgren feels that all the requirements that are made to the suppliers
seem discouraging and result in fewer participants in the tender competitions.
Smaller suppliers must not be excluded because they don’t have the opportunity
to carry through an ambitious control routine.

It was at the ’Konkurrensverkets’ conference ”Effektivare offentlig upphandling” that Norgren
pointed out the importance of innovative suppliers – ”If there is to be any
purpose with a formal procurement process, the profits after completed
procurement should be larger than the costs related to writing criteria and
tender documents, publish, open tender envelopes, make assessments and
everything else that is required”, said Norgren.

- If all contracts were to go to well-established companies with a long lifespan that
deliver exactly the same products and services as before, this will automatically
lead to weakened competition force. The main point of having bidding rounds is
various companies competing to offer new products and services at lower price
with higher quality. For this to happen, new established and innovative
suppliers must be given a chance to participate, stated Norgren. – The number
of requirements of all kinds are also discouraging to the suppliers. It’s not
much fun to spend hours, days or weeks to produce a bid and never get a single
contract. There is a responsibility on the employers here to shape tender
documents and carry out various qualification processes to make it appear
meaningful to make a bid., Norgren continued.

Source:Doffin