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UK government urged to reform state procurement

The UK government has been urged to put the reform of state procurement programmes high on the agenda during any discussions on the economy at the Conservative Party Conference next week.

New research by The Enterprise Trust claims that reform is need because Whitehall is limited in its procurement processes by legal constraints and by its obligations to the World Trade Organisation and the European Union.

According to the Enterprise Trust, if the UK government creates a portal through which only SMEs can gain access, as promised by David Cameron before the election, it will make contracts of less interest to the big corporations and interfere with the process of procurement as laid down by the WTO.

The WTO agreement was entered into by Brussels on behalf of all EU member states.

"With its research giving a clear indication that American-style government procurement processes for business cannot be employed here, The Trust is asking the coalition Government and the Conservative party to explain how they intend to ensure value for the tax payer," the Enterprise Trust stated.

To begin the unravelling process towards fair procurement, report calls for "realism" in what constitutes discrimination, particularly now that it is now accepted that some firms who are "dominant" or "super dominant" in individual markets destroy competition through aggressively low or predatory pricing.

Enterprise Trust chairman Bill Poeton said: "We have to get laws changed here in the UK and then in the EU so that Brussels and the WTO between them cannot block fair government procurement processes. Nor should large companies be allowed to elbow SMEs out of the marketplace of government procurement, funded by the tax-payer. Until these laws are changed, promises to allocate 25% of all government purchasing to SMEs responsible for over two million jobs are empty promises."