‘Missed chance’ to revamp tender process

THE Scottish Government’s plans to revamp the public procurement system were described as a “missed opportunity” by CBI Scotland yesterday.

While the employers’ organisation praised commitments in the Budget Bill to prioritise capital spending that encourages business investment and economic growth, it said measures to create a more business-friendly procurement process had not gone far enough.

CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan said: “The lack of any firm commitment to allow the private and third sectors a ‘right to bid’ to deliver public services is a missed opportunity.”

Last month, the Scottish Building Federation said the current system was a “lottery” for Scottish firms looking to win public contracts, and said costs were “prohibitively high” for two-thirds of companies.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Scotland said it hoped the Procurement Reform Bill – unveiled along with 14 other bills by First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday – would simplify the process to allow wider participation from small and medium-sized Scottish firms.

RICS Scotland said the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Bill will introduce a more progressive system than the current stamp duty regime when Holyrood gets the powers for this in 2005, and McMillan said the government should use this opportunity to “provide a competitive advantage to firms operating in Scotland with lower tax rates”.