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Government independant supliers List – info please?
Just been contacted by Read Publications who asked me if I would like to have our company listed in the independent suppliers list that will be forwarded to all the purchasing managers of schools, the MOD, councils etc in our county. I’ve tried to look up a web site for them but could only find them in business directory listings. The fee they want is not too much, and they have e-mailed forms to be filled out, so don’t think this is a scam.
Has anyone dealt with them before or had themselves listed in this way, and if so, was it worth it? -
6 Replies
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It’s not worth it.
Just another way of getting you to part with your money. They’ll tell you this makes you an “approved supplier” which is complete nonsense. Only the buyers can decide who they’re approved suppliers are.
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tell them to p1zz off.
nothing more than creating jobs for themselves and wasting our time as well.
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The easiest way to gain business from a school is to go and see them and suggest some ideas and leave a card 😀
School teachers have no time to read lists
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There are a number of reputable and other Companies out there who will get you on lists for public sector contracts.
I am sure that you know that public bodies, government agencies, etc are obliged to publish notices for tenders for all supplies and services above a certain threshold. All of these are published daily on the ‘OJ’ (Official Journal of the European Union) link below.
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/
Recalling some work I did in this area while at college there are three types of tender notices
1 – pre-qualification, here the authority will seek a list of suppliers and they will ask only some of the applicants to tender for the actual job
2 – open notice, they will send the documents to all who apply and consider all valid tenders received
3 – restricted procedure, they will only invite a selected few companies to tender for a particular job. This procedure is usually only used for really technical work.
With these types of contracts there are certain criteria that business has to meet to apply for these tenders, e.g., be able to produce three years audited accounts, adequate insurance, health and safety plans, etc.
However, for contracts below the threshold best practice suggests that authorities maintain a list of ‘suitable local suppliers’. It would be my suggestion that sign companies interested in getting on this list write directly to the authority ‘seeking to be added to the list of local suppliers for the supply of signage products’. It could be argued that these opportunities are stitched up by one local company, but opportunities usually do arise, I can recall interviewing one company who tried for four years to be included on his list.
I have more information on this are which I will post if it is required and of use to members.
Hamlet.
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It takes a lot to become an approved supplier for the government! If you were interested in goverment work you would be better of subscribing to their contracts bulletins (the MOD have a Contracts bulletin).
You do have to subscribe to them and they don’t come cheap, but that is one way of finding out about government work.
Just for the record, schools don’t go through a tender process for their uniform, they usually just give a few companies a ring and then negotiate with one.
Janine
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I’ve been contacted by at least 3 company’s all selling the same thing, they all told me that they were the official directory for government, schools etc so make what you will from that. As Phil has already said just another way of getting you to part with your money.
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