Project which assists small companies shortlisted for UK Award

A project which has improved local small companies and contractors’ success in bidding for local authority tenders in Wales has been shortlisted for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply "Best Procurement Project of the Year" Award at the upcoming Annual UK Procurement Awards.

The Award shortlist is for the work done by the Winning in Tendering research team at the Law School’s Institute for Competition and Procurement Studies (ICPS). The nomination recognises the impact of the Wining in Tendering Team’s pilot studies with several Welsh Councils. The team have convinced the local authorities to move to Open Tendering, away from non-transparent Restricted Tendering, allowing them to halve their tender evaluation-processing time, while simultaneously generating more competitive bidding.

The nomination also recognises the unique feature of the methodology, which is now proven to double the tendering-success rate of companies within 12 months of its adoption, and also helps suppliers of goods and services penetrate previously impenetrable procurement frameworks.  Several foreign governments as well as national agencies, are expressing interest in adopting the same method.

The nomination follows recent tributes paid to the Winning in Tendering work by MPs in a House of Commons Debate.

Professor Dermot Cahill, Head of the Bangor Law School and the ICPS said: “This is superb recognition of our work. We are privileged to be in an elite shortlisted group of five nominees, all Goliath's in their fields, household major names such as Capita, PA Consulting and the MoD, so we are up against high powered opposition indeed.”

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply Awards, the ‘Oscars’ of the procurement world, will be announced at the Grosvenor Hotel in London in September. This year’s Judging Panel Chair is Gerry Walsh, former Procurement Director at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), and winner of last year’s ‘CIPS procurement and supply chain professional of the year’ award. He heads a distinguished judging panel of procurement experts and professionals from industry, media and academia including Babcock International Group, Mars Chocolate, the Royal Mail Group, Cranfield School of Management, ITV and HSBC.

Publication date: 11 July 2013