SUMMARY:

The Certificate for Public Purchases – Small- And Medium- Sized Enterprises (an essential procedure for such companies in Uruguay) was valued as one of the best digital services according to the web site of the Presidency of the Republic of Uruguay.
 

INFORMATION:

The Certificate for Public Purchases – Small- and Medium- Sized Enterprises was released by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM as for its acronym in Spanish) and is processed with ApiaTrámites, a platform developed by STATUM. Recently, it obtained the top score in the digital services satisfaction survey for the period June 2022 to May 2023. 

The mentioned survey assesses the experience of users with digital services. It is sent by e-mail to users that performed an online procedure and is optional. The aspects assessed are satisfaction in general, time and money saving, reliability, speed, and service performance.

This certificate, which provides benefits in government purchasing processes, obtained 502 user reviews and an average score of 4.9 points (out of 5.) This reveals high levels of efficacy and user satisfaction. 

The most valued benefit offered by this certificate is the margin of preference when comparing offers, which varies depending on the category of the company.

However, companies must register in a management improvement program unless they have an ISO 9001 certification or an equivalent. Such program covers a customized evaluation and a strengthening and improvement plan, and is fully subsidized by MIEM.

The procedure is free of cost and allows small- and medium- sized enterprises to obtain benefits such as public bidding abbreviated processes or direct purchasing by exceptions. The only cost is that of the official stamp.