GOVERNMENT ELECTRONIC BUSINESS (GEBIZ)

Column: 47

GOVERNMENT ELECTRONIC BUSINESS (GEBIZ): 22.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance whether his Ministry will require all Public-Private Partnership providers, Government-owned corporatised entities, and Temasek-linked companies to use GeBIZ in their procurement, so as to enhance Singapore's reputation for business transparency and maximise opportunities for our small and medium

Column: 48

enterprises to market their goods and services.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang (Nominated Member): Sir, let me disclose that I am a director and investor in various SMEs.

The Second Minister for Finance (Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat) (for the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, GeBIZ is Government's electronic procurement portal through which public agencies procure their goods and services.

Public sector agencies do not dictate how their suppliers should in turn procure their own goods and services. This applies to all suppliers, including Public-Private Partnership (PPP) service providers. After the public sector agency selects its PPP provider, how the provider in turn procures, from whom, and at what terms, is a commercial decision to be made by the provider itself. It would not be appropriate for the Government to intervene in the commercial relationship between our suppliers and their own suppliers. The Government would already have taken its value-for-money decision when it chooses the successful bid above all the competing bids.

Government-owned corporatised entities and Temasek-linked companies (TLCs) are not public sector agencies. Like other private sector entities,

they decide how best to procure their goods and services according to their commercial terms. It would not be appropriate to require them to procure through GeBIZ.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang: Mr Speaker, Sir, my biggest nightmare is that, one day, the Government will have one big tender and one company will get the one big tender and all the rest in the SMEs will never get any opportunities. Because that one big company will of course give all its business to its subsidiaries and friends, and GeBIZ, which is now populated every

Column: 49

day by hundreds or thousands of new tender projects, would disappear.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: What was the Member's question?

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang: The question is: could we study having a working group to keep these opportunities open to our SMEs?

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: We are in sympathy to ensure that our SMEs have opportunities. But I am not sure that the way he suggests is the right way to go. Because the fundamental question he has to ask himself is whether the Government should mandate how commercial entities that have secured a Government contract or a corporatised entity that has substantial Government ownership procure their supplies. This is really a business decision that we should leave to them. You take an SME, for instance. An SME, if we use his argument, goes through GeBIZ and secures a Government contract. Should we, in turn, ask the SME now that, in order to fulfil the contract, it can only decide its subcontractors through the GeBIZ? I do not think that is the way to go. The way we should try to help the SMEs is to upgrade their capabilities, marketing skills and competence so that their goods and services are more attractive in the marketplace rather than to take a prescriptive approach.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang: Sir, how about making this requirement that it should be above a certain size of contract? This would be similar to, say, requirements for compliance with quality standards, or environmental standards. Here, we just require compliance with procurement standards. Other countries do it. US has a small business set aside. I am not asking for it to be set aside. I am just asking that we keep those opportunities so that SMEs can compete

Column: 50

on a basis of what they can do, and not who they know.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: As I said, the fundamental thing is whether we want to interfere once we have awarded a Government contract to an SME and, in turn, when an SME wants to subcontract it out, whether we want to interfere in that particular decision. I am not in favour of that. In terms of expanding opportunities, there are various ways that we have done so, and we will continue to explore new ways to try to help SMEs expand their market opportunities. I think that is the preferred approach rather than to handcuff one party in order to benefit the other.