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Public Contracts Scotland Case Study - Scotland

In 2006 John McClelland CBE published his report Review of Public Procurement in Scotland and called for a single public sector "electronic portal" to help resolve a number of issues which he found. A competitive tendering exercise was undertaken to find a suitable supplier with Millstream being awarded a 5 year contract to provide Public Contracts Scotland (PCS).

Working closely with the Scottish Procurement Directorate, Millstream have built upon the existing functionality used on their portals to provide a solution to:

• have all Scottish public sector opportunities advertised in one location (those OJEU notices that are not processed through PCS are uploaded to the portal)
• allow authorities to conduct request for quotation exercises for low value procurements ("Quick Quotes")
• transfer data on contract awards to the Scottish Government's external procurement hub

The portal was officially launched by John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, at the Scottish National Procurement Conference in October 2008. Since then the activity on the portal has exceeded government expectations and resulted in the portal being shortlisted for a European eGovernment Award in 2009.

"Government really have to stretch themselves to design things that make an impact on people and organisations and Public Contracts Scotland is one of them. It is one of the most fantastic tools I've ever seen. I am delighted with the performance of Public Contracts Scotland and I look forward to that having a further effect on the way that the market operates in years to come."

John Swinney MSP