Moray programme is helping local businesses secure more government contracts.

A Moray programme is helping local businesses secure more government contracts.

Working alongside the Scottish Government’s Supplier Development Programme (SDP), Moray Council’s procurement team held the first of two training workshops aimed at improving local business access to the tender process.

The workshop followed positive feedback from the ‘Meet the Buyer North’ event and the launch of the Supplier Development Programme in 2019, geared to help suppliers of a wide range of commodities and services to learn how to become ‘tender ready’ for government business.

Moray Council’s Payments Manager, Diane Beattie, said the recent workshop was a huge success for contractors and the public sector.

“I was surprised by the diversity of businesses that attended the workshop, all of whom had the potential to bid for public contracts,” she said.

“I had to remind myself that although I represent local authority procurement, the course was much wider than that and covered bidding for all public organisations. 

“Every day is a school day and although I am ‘procuring’ day in day out, I learned a lot about what it means from the sellers point of view.”

A second workshop, to be held at the Inkwell, Elgin, is scheduled for February 19 and already 20 companies have registered to attend.

The workshops are the first face-to-face SDP training ever delivered in Moray. A spokeswoman for SDP said that the council’s partnership with the programme has enabled meaningful connections between buyers and suppliers throughout Scotland. 

“It is clearly making a huge difference to suppliers, as 100% of attendees that responded to the post-event survey said that their business has improved its capability of bidding for more government contracts,” she said.

 “Suppliers can find out about up and coming Moray contract opportunities in 2020, as well as the wider public sector in Scotland which spends £11bn per year nationally.”

To book a free place on the February 19 workshop, which covers tender procedures, visit the Supplier Development Programme website at www.sdpscotland.co.uk.