Contribution of Public Procurement to the Success of Small and Medium Enterprises: A Case of SMEs in Moshi Municipality

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the contribution of Public Procurement on SMEs development. Specifically, this study intended to asses SMEs' awareness and participation in public procurement opportunities, to determines the extent of SMEs participation, winning rate and its awareness on public procurement opportunities, to assess whether technical condition, financial conditions and evaluation criteria are fair for SMEs to participate in public procurement and win tenders. Cross sectional research design was used to undertake the study where Moshi Municipality as a study area. Purposive sampling technique was used to pick a sample of 50 SMEs owners selected from SMEs operating in Moshi Municipality. Data were analyzed through applying interpretive and reflexive qualitative approaches while quantitative techniques involved utilization of descriptive statistics. Findings indicate that that, SMEs owners are aware of public procurement opportunities and they also participate in applying for these opportunities despite the fact that the winning rate is very low. It was argued that the low winning rate was due to unfavorable technical conditions, unfavorable financial conditions, as well as unfair evaluation criteria demanded by the Tanzanian Public Procurement Act 2011.