Glasgow Uni accused of discriminating against Scots PR firms
Glasgow University’s tender for a PR consultancy to handle a worldwide fundraising campaign has come under fire from the Scottish PR industry after strict conditions stipulated by the university barred almost every PR agency in Scotland from bidding.
The pitch for the £70,000, one year contract has been restricted to a maximum of five agencies, but before getting as far as the pitch bidders will have to demonstrate a turnover of at least £10m.
This seemingly arbitrary number of £10m precludes all PR consultancies headquartered in Scotland, with Weber Shandwick the only Scottish agency able to bid due to the turnover of its parent company.
However, more specifically, the PQQ document states that "evidence of a minimum turnover for the firm providing the service (not parent companies) of 10M GBP" must be supplied. This means that the turnover must be that of the office pitching - not the networked group.
One agency boss said: "As a Scottish-owned business within a worldwide network, this project would be perfect for us. Because of the £10m threshold this company, like pretty much every other Scottish PR company, is cut out of going for this despite the fact that we are on the ground and have the expertise to deliver at a cost-effective rate."
Scotland’s biggest PR firm is thought to be Big Partnership which has annual income of around £7m a year.
On the Public Contracts Scotland website, when asked to clarify why this threshold has been set so high, a Glasgow University spokesperson retorted: “This tender is open to any firm in Europe or indeed worldwide and not just Scotland. The purpose of the European tender rules is to open the competition up in this manner, or in other words, it is illegal for us to appoint locally unless that local appointment wins the tender. 10m pounds represents around 5% of the University turnover and given the strategic importance of this project we considered the minimum turnover to be reasonable.”
However, an anonymous commentator from one Scottish PR firm has since pointed out that as the “university’s turnover comes partly from grants and public funding” this figure of 5% doesn’t “represent real turnover”.
In a further statement from the university a spokesperson explained why the minimum income has been stipulated: “A global fundraising campaign requires an agency with international experience running a fully-integrated and comprehensive project. Given the strategic importance of this project we consider the minimum turnover to be reasonable.”
The Public Contracts Scotland website outlined the criteria upon which the tender will be awarded, with the overall cost of the project being weighted as 10%; evidence of how successful projects of a similar scale and type carried out in organisations of a similar scale to University of Glasgow weighted at 50%; evidence of strategic planning and research accounting for 10%; general approach and strategy suggested including creative and innovative suggestions, 15%; and relevance, gravitas and quality of the team allocated to this project weighted at 15%.
While procurement documents earmark £50,000-£70,000 for the initial planning, research and strategy work, it is thought the execution of such a campaign would normally attract a further £100,000 to £250,000 in fees, lifting the project’s possible value to more than £300,000.