Oh really?
What biased rubbish.
Do the oligarchy always have massively resources teams waiting around for this big projects? No - they have to go and recruit.
Here are the reasons why SMEs don't get contracts:
1. Buyers love dealing with big contracts and big suppliers.
2. SMEs are seen as 'risky' - more than once we've had to demo a 'fully functional prototype' (ie end product) to prove we weren't a risk.
3. Apparently big suppliers can charge more because 'they have support behind them' whatever this means. Trying charging 1200 quid a day as an SME and you'll get questioned all ends up.
4. SME's can't afford the overhead of recruiting ex-civil servants and military personnel to keep the wheels greased.
5. SME's are under the impression that providing innovation and giving value means something to public sector procurement - it doesn't, the bigger and better for their CV.
6. Rarely do procurors really know what they're doing and rely on suppliers to tell them what they want, creating a nice little partnership.
7. Even public sector initiatives like the MoD's CDE prefer to give to the same old oligarchy as opposed to funding innovation.
8. Ha! Penalty clauses - how often do these get invoked?!?!?!
The big surprise? That SME's even got 6.5% of the budget.