small council contracts

[twobob]

I've been approached by a comapny called dotgov who claim to work alongside council procurement officers to find small to medium companies (SME's) to carry out relatively small contracts in schools etc.

 

Does anyone have any experience of this lot or any other company offering a similar service, it all seems fairly sound and its a low annual cost to register but could easily be an elaborate scam.

 

Is going through a private company/agent an accepted way of winning small council contracts?

 

any advice on this would be appreciated

[Rupe]

If they have approached you with regard to you givign them money then of course its a scam!

 

Even if its legit, you wont get any work from it, you have to get the work from the council by being on their list, they dont pay outside companies for that, although thye might use the AA or Chas or something along those lines.

 

The small council contracts are generally so cheap that you couldn't afford to pay someone to help you not get them.

[White Noise]

Was his name Barnaby Smith if so they contacted us . Sounds rather dubious .

 

Rupe hit the nail on the head there . Very much doubt you,d get any work out of them .

 

Although I could be wrong it has been known

[janey]

Ask which Councils they represent and then contact the relevant HR departments to check if they use this company if you want to make sure, but it sounds dodgy to me.

 

The LAs I have worked for have been inundated with small companies offering their services and there was never any need for a third party to arrange the contracts.

[Paul Smith]

Don't forget even if it was kosher you would still have to tender or quote for the work! This means obviously the LA will take the cheapest quote to be seen to get value for money!

[Tom D]

Its a con. If you want work in a particular sector, then you have to go and find it. By this I mean find out who does the hireing and fireing and contact them....by phone or in person... emails or post/leaflets are a waste of time for this type of work. Its who you know not what you know.

[janey]

Don't forget even if it was kosher you would still have to tender or quote for the work! This means obviously the LA will take the cheapest quote to be seen to get value for money!

 

Not necessarily. It can depend on the amount of money and type of work involved. Ususually, if the estimated cost is fairly low, then the TO has the ability to choose who they give the work to. Having to quote against other companies then happens for larger amounts of money

 

If there is already a fixed term contractor in place, then the above will be dependant on what's written in the contract.

[gibbon]

Chances are all they will do is register you with the procurement website. You could do it yourself for free. Where's the name twobob come from? Haven't worked in west Africa have you? They call white guys toubobs

[twobob]

thanks all

 

I don't generally go for anything companies contact me with and I shall adopt the same policy on this I think, thanks janey too, sound advice from someone with inside experience of councils shinanigans is valuable.

[treequip]

It’s doesn’t look like a scam. For £99.00 a year they will send you an email to tell you about tenders, tenders that will probably go to the lowest bid, that you could find out about yourself if you looked.

 

Question is, would £99.00 for a few (or a lot of) pointers be value for money?