Aimed at helping SMEs win more public sector business, the website enables businesses to search and view both high and low value contract opportunities advertised by Welsh public sector organisations.
Finance Minister Sue Essex said: "I am delighted to see Value Wales has been so successful in encouraging public sector organisations to advertise their contracts on the sell2wales website. By working together, the public sector is helping to make the business sector here in Wales a real success."
Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport said: "The public sector in Wales spends some £4 billion each year on procurement. The National Procurement Website is an excellent example of Value Wales’ continuing work to remove barriers between the public sector and SMEs, making it convenient and easy for Welsh businesses to access public sector contract opportunities.
Mike Melville, e-procurement Programme Manager for Value Wales, comments: “The number of Welsh public sector organisations making use of the site demonstrates the success of this project and I am particularly pleased with the National Assembly for Wales’ commitment to advertise all of their contracts worth over £25,000 on sell2wales.
“It is an excellent resource for businesses who can search hundreds of public sector contracts. They can now also respond to Request for Quotes online, saving them both time and money and paving the way for the introduction of e-tendering next year.”
Launched in 2003, the NPW forms part of Value Wales’ e-procurement programme and was developed by the Welsh Assembly Government in partnership with the Welsh Development Agency. It was the first nation-wide online contract advertisement database, driven by the public sector, and was also the first to provide automated email notifications for users.
Value Wales, is the specialist service set up to deliver change across the whole public sector and improve efficiency, following the publication in October 2004 of ‘Making the Connections’ - the Welsh Assembly Government’s review of Public Services. It has set a vision for excellent public services through joint working across the whole public sector, and a target for £600M value for money improvements by 2010, £120M of these from smarter procurement.
Value Wales is focused on value for money opportunities from:
- Smarter procurement
- Streamlining support functions
- Better management of capital investment
Its primary objective as major catalyst for change is to help organisations join together to deliver the value for money savings set out in Making the Connections by providing leadership, strategic direction and access to information best practice and technical expertise across the public sector. It will have three arms, Procurement, Strategic Partnerships and Capital.
Quelle: Publictechnology, 20.12.2005
