Public and Private Sector Views of Electronic Government Tendering in light of the Glover report in Northern Ireland

Robert Eadie, Clare Mahon, Phillip Millar, Henry Odeyinka, Gary McMorran

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Abstract

Despite many initiatives e-procurement uptake in the UK within construction has not been as fast as expected. Glover (2008) identified e-procurement as a catalyst to successfully accelerating the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) economic engine. Glover’s (2008) recommendations are based on making procurement more transparent, simpler, more strategic and fully electronic by the end of 2010. This research investigates Government progress in meeting the recommendations and deadlines in the report. The findings are based on responses from 101 private sector organisations identified as seeking government projects through registration with “Constructionline”. Findings indicate that many aspects of the Glover Report(2008) have not been fully implemented. However, when comparing the results with a previous study Eadie et al (2011) it indicates that e-procurement use has accelerated in response to the report. The paper also investigates issues related to time to complete tenders, size and contract aggregation. The prequalification process is identified as a barrier for SMEs in regard to showcasing their unique attributes and increased workload through lack of standardisation. The paper showed little difference in responses regarding the amount of time needed to produce an accurate tender for government organisations for tenders above and below the EU financial thresholds. The UK Government needs to identify improvements in the prequalification process and this paper suggests that the adoption of the standard BSI/PAS91(2010) prequalification questionnaire may assist in addressing some of these problems.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUnknown Host Publication
Place of PublicationSao Paulo Brazil
PublisherUniversity of Sao Paulo
Number of pages12
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 17 Aug 2012
Event7th International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Duration: 17 Aug 2012 → …

Conference

Conference7th International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC)
Period17/08/12 → …

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

  • Government Procurement
  • e-procurement
  • Prequalification
  • Glover Report

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