Can small, medium and micro enterprises survive in public procurement?: Lessons from Botswana

Purpose The paper aims to investigate challenges facing small-, medium- and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in public procurement in Botswana from the view of a buyer. Design/methodology/approach The researchers conducted consultative workshops, succeeded by focus groups and follow-up telephone interviews, to collect and validate data. A total of 75 procurement officers from central government ministries and local governments participated in the study. Findings Results indicate that SMMEs find it difficult to deal with public procurement because of lack of capacity, unfair bias against SMMEs, inefficient government payment systems, unfair competition from their larger and established counterparts and centralized public procurement. The paper recommends a comprehensive integrated framework, improvement of SMME capacity and adopting policies to ensure greater public procurement market access.