A group of MPs is urging the government to emulate the success of London 2012 venues and roll out procurement practices used by the ODA in a bid to reduce costs and increase quality of public sector buildings.
In its first report published this week, The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment has come up with a 13-point plan to increase value for money for the taxpayer. Among the recommendations set out in the report: A Better Deal for Public Building – are that the public sector adopt integrated teams, a balanced score card approach to selecting the team, and use the 2012 commitments as a framework for setting performance goals on issues such as training and sustainability. All these protocols were used at London 2012, which has been hailed as huge success for coming in on time and under budget. CM argued for the adoption of the 2012 Commitments last month (construction-manager.co.uk/news/our-olympic-flame-must-keep-burning).
The report endorses the government’s aim of achieving 20% cost savings for public construction projects over the course of the current Parliament, and its adoption of building information modelling, as outlined in its Construction Strategy unveiled last year. But it says that unless government implements its proposals, there is a danger that the savings are achieved at the expense of good quality design.
Key recommendations include:
- Setting up setting up a Best Practice Procurement Advisory Group to assist inexperienced public sector clients (including government departments, agencies, non-departmental public bodies and local government) to define their objectives clearly and adopt appropriate procurement arrangements for the size and type of project. The government should do this via its chief construction adviser. Infrequent clients would also benefit from appointing a professional adviser to develop the brief.
- Procuring projects on the basis of integrated teams (designers, contractors and, if appropriate, asset managers). The selection of an integrated team must not be made on the basis of lowest price. Instead, as with the construction of the venues for London 2012, the decision should be made on the basis of a balanced scorecard. This means, marking the bid against a prescribed range of specified criteria, one of which should be long-term sustainability.
- Ensuring large-scale public projects (£100m-plus in value) have mandatory construction commitments, based on the 2012 Construction Commitments.
- Requiring the Government’s chief construction adviser to prepare an annual report on the performance of public sector clients (including government departments, agencies, non-departmental public body and local authorities) in construction procurement. This should highlight positive achievements in successful projects, as well as failure to deliver value.
- Follow the new British Standard on procurement BS 8534 (http://construction-manager.co.uk/construction-professional/new-standards-construction-procurement/)
Responding to the report, CIC chairman Jack Pringle called the recommendation for a balanced score card “refreshingly grown up” and said it really helped to spell out the importance of not selecting teams on lowest price.
He also praised the report for suggesting novice clients bring in client advisers at the start of a project. “I’m pleased to see that contractor lead design is not the only option,” he said. “The report recognises the benefits BIM can bring – our holy grail as an industry is for a modern, high-tech mainly off site, low carbon industry, and the report points the way to that.”
Sir Tony Baldry, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment, said: “As the squeeze has tightened on public spending, it is more imperative than ever that public sector clients and their suppliers work together to lower the cost of building procurement to the public purse. Lest it be overlooked, the government is still the construction industry’s largest single client spending £46bn a year.”
The APPG for the BE will launch a new enquiry in the New Year on Green construction where it will begin a call for evidence.
CM Comment: public procurement needs to go back to basics
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