MONTEGO BAY, St James — International specialist in public sector procurement Dr Ama Eyo is suggesting that Jamaica’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) partner with international companies competing for local contracts.

“You could do this is when you have a big international company coming to compete in a contract here in Jamaica. Perhaps, you have a collaborative arrangement whereby you have done the supply development analysis and then you can pace smaller businesses into Jamaica up with those large businesses,” she recommended.

“One of the fears that countries like Jamaica may have is how would your businesses begin to compete in the global market when your business is so small,” she added.

Dr Eyo is a lecturer in law and programme director at Bangor University, North Wales, United Kingdom.

She was speaking last Thursday, the final day of the three-day Office of Public Procurement Policy Elevate Procurement Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

Speaking at the same venue last month, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill made a similar pitch to large local companies to support MSMEs before looking abroad, a strategy which he deemed will strengthen the economy.

“I am challenging you large companies, first to say, make sure you look at ways you can find to include small companies in the stuff that you buy and the services that you buy. Don’t look overseas first, look at our micro, small and medium-sized companies. Why? Because when you build them they employ people that buy the stuff that you sell. It’s a symbiotic relationship that makes sense to both sides,” the minister said then.

“Jamaican big business and small businesses must work together. The big ones help the smaller ones, the smaller ones step up to the plate,” he added at the media launch of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 20th Biennial Trade Expo 2024.

Dr Eyo challenged procurement officers to be on the lookout for companies acting as facades in winning contracts on behalf of other people.

“In terms of bringing sustainable procurement to regenerate the society, make sure that the people winning the contracts are not fronts for other people. This is something that is prevalent in South Africa where certain types of contracts are meant to go to certain categories of South Africans but the owners of those companies are actually fronts for other people. Something you need to be aware of,” she cautioned.

“In that case, in South Africa there is a lot of bribery and corruption and there is a lot of false certification in that some contracts are signed off when they haven’t really been performed accurately. It’s just not sufficient for you to do a good procurement exercise but you must make sure that the contracts managements stage is not susceptible to corruption,” she added.

Held under the theme ‘evate: Innovate, Create’, the conference had more than 500 attendees comprising suppliers of goods, services and works, public procurement oversight institutions, along with international and regional procurement practitioners, among others.