Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are continuing their strong performance in the Federal Government procurement market, with more than $16 billion in government contracts awarded to SMEs during the last financial year.
Of the more than 80,000 contracts the Government entered into in 2011-12, nearly 40 per cent were with small businesses, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong, said.
This is four times more than our target that agencies source at least 10 per cent of all contracts, by value, from small businesses.
The Minister for Small Business, Gary Gray, also welcomed todays figures.
These results show that Australian small businesses are delivering innovation and quality in the goods and services they provide to government, Mr Gray said.
The Gillard Government remains committed to fair and equal access to Government business opportunities, and for small businesses in particular, we will continue our focus on further reductions in complexity and costs of tendering.
The Government has improved procurement arrangements for small businesses, with new rules to ensure government agencies pay SME contracts on time.
Under these changes, introduced last year, small businesses will automatically be paid interest on the outstanding payment where an agency fails to pay an invoice on time. Invoices will be automatically generated after 60 days for all contracts where the interest accrued is greater than $10 and the contract does not exceed $1 million (including GST).
While the overwhelming majority of invoices for these contracts are paid within the specified time 97.7 per cent the Government wants to make sure all small businesses are paid on time.
For practical advice on becoming a supplier to the Australian Government, businesses are encouraged to download Selling to the Australian Government A guide for business publication, available from www.finance.gov.au.
Businesses can also register their area of business interest on AusTender (www.tenders.gov.au) to receive automatic notification of the latest business opportunities as they are published.