The council, which claims to be the first local authority in the country to tweet tender opportunities aims to speed up the current process by introducing new methods, including abolishing pre-qualification questionnaires for contracts valued under £100,000.
Public Service report that the the Twitter handle @NCCContracts has been promoting opportunities to the council’s 5,500 corporate Twitter followers, and in the first month of launching has published 18 contracts.
Derek Murphy stated that the response from the business community had been positive and that social media was considered “long overdue”.
Referring to the notion of helping local companies bid for council contracts, Murphy said: “We’re in a recession, and in these austere times SMEs are going to help get us out.”
