Minister of State O’Donovan welcomes Office of Government Procurement Public Procurement Spend and Tendering Analysis Report

Minister of State with special responsibility for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment, Patrick O’Donovan T.D., today launched the Office of Government Procurement’s (OGP) Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis Report for 2016.

This is the fourth report produced by the OGP analysing tendering and expenditure on goods, services and minor works by Irish public service bodies (PSBs). The reports are part of the OGP’s commitment to openness and transparency around public procurement in Ireland.

More than €4.7 billion – or almost 80% – of the estimated annual public procurement addressable spend under the remit of the OGP and its sector partners, is analysed in the report for 2016. The analysis is encouraging, indicating that 94% of the State’s expenditure is with firms within Ireland and that the majority is with small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The report also analyses almost 4,000 public service tender notices published on the national procurement platform, etenders.gov.ie. The estimated value of these notices in 2016 was €6.8 billion, up 44% from €4.7 billion in 2015. This increase is mainly attributable to high-value tender notices in areas such as construction, plant hire, and facilities management.

Minister of State O’Donovan said: “Public procurement represents a major opportunity for SMEs. The OGP works closely with representative bodies for the SME sector through a dedicated advisory group, both to make business aware of the scale of this opportunity and to hear at first hand their concerns.”

“Since we started compiling this report in 2013, the majority of spend analysed has remained with the SME sector and a clear majority is spent with firms based in Ireland. The median value of contracts advertised by Irish public bodies on eTenders in 2016 was €80,000, suggesting that there are many smaller contracts where SMEs can compete and win.”

ENDS

The 2016 Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis Report is available to view here.

About the OGP

The Office of Government Procurement (OGP), together with four key sectors (Health, Local Government, Education and Defence), has responsibility for sourcing goods and services on behalf of the public service. The OGP also has responsibility for procurement policy and procedures, sourcing systems and data analytics.

The OGP Business Intelligence team has produced the fourth annual Public Service Spend and Tender Analysis report using expenditure data gathered from 77 Public Service Bodies (PSBs). The report analyses €4.723 billion of procurement addressable spend, 79% of PSB procurement addressable spend under the remit of the OGP and its sector partners for 2016. The 2016 spend analysed is €189 million more than that analysed in the 2015 report and is the result of additional spend data obtained from public service bodies for 2016. Tendering data is taken from etenders.gov.ie, the national procurement platform, administered by the OGP.