A total of 130 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have participated in the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC)-hosted Public Procurement Readiness Project Workshop aimed at building their capacity to successfully bid for public sector contracts.

The workshop was a four-part series that was held island-wide and facilitated by the Office of Public Procurement Policy (OPPP) within the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MOFPS). It forms part of a broader initiative by the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC) to increase local MSMEs’ participation in public procurement, thereby promoting national growth and development.

The first workshop held in Kingston on March 27-28, 2023, had 43 MSMEs in attendance; the second in Mandeville, Manchester on May 28-29, 2024, with 20; the third workshop in St James on June 11-12, 2024, with 19; and the final workshop, held at the JBDC Incubator and Resource Centre in Kingston on July 11-12, 2024, had 48 MSMEs joining the initiative.

Karen Hylton, small business financing specialist at MIIC underscored the importance of empowering MSMEs in a statement at the final workshop.

“As Jamaica’s Business Ministry, the Ministry for MSMEs, it was important for us [MIIC] to drive this initiative and empower our MSMEs with the knowledge and tools needed to thrive in a competitive marketplace,” she shared.

“This workshop not only serves to train MSMEs in how to prepare bid documents but also to break down the Set-Aside Orders and the fundamentals of the public procurement process – what the intricacies are, what it means to MSMEs, the benefits and opportunities available and what the requirements would be to meet the eligibility criteria.”

Missing out

MSMEs face significant challenges in public procurement as they often lack the resources and technical expertise to participate in public bids. As such, many MSMEs opt out of the bidding process and miss out on opportunities to compete for tenders.

Public entities purchase a diverse range of goods and services from the private sector, representing a substantial portion of the public sector budget each year. However, due to their limitations, MSMEs do not consider public sector bids a best fit.

During the workshop, MSMEs received the opportunity to register on-site for the Government of Jamaica Electronic Procurement Portal (GOJEP), a tender management system. Of the 130 MSMEs trained, 85 were registered on the GOJEP platform during the sessions. There were only 25 MSMEs previously registered.

According to Chantol Dormer, manager, project management and Research at JBDC, “Our goal was to ensure that not only MSMEs in our clientele but also MSMEs in the general populous have the opportunity to access the information that this training provides.”

“We want MSMEs to walk away with a feeling of empowerment that the government contract market is accessible to them and that it can be an important component of their business growth,” Andrei Bennett, chief public procurement policy officer at OPPP, stated.

“The second thing is that we want them to have a clear understanding of what it takes to participate in the government contract space; understanding government requirements, how to respond to the tender calls that are put out, and how to make the most attractive bids possible, and thirdly to tell somebody else.”