Martin Chambers: educate clients
Martin Chambers PPCIOB, framework director of Shaylor Group, says the government can no longer duck the issue on mandating PAS 91 across the public sector – but the industry needs to play its part too
There is much to be welcomed in the Construction Strategy and since its publication a number of initiatives have already been progressed, including the appointment of Stephen Allott as the government’s independent SME adviser. But for SMEs on the front line the most significant barrier to winning public sector work continues to be lengthy, over-complicated pre-qualification questionnaires and red tape.
For example, one client we dealt with recently seemed to be doing it all right – we got an excellent, targeted pre-qual form with only a handful of questions, all of them directly relevant to the project, a maximum of 250 words per answer. It looked like we were dealing with an intelligent client – until they decided to ask nine to tender, all because of the high quality of responses they had received. This is complete nonsense and makes a mockery of the prequalification process. After all, they still only had one contract to award, or maybe they were going to split it in half if they had two very good tenders back!
However, I don’t think the answer is simply abolishing pre-qualification for procurements below a certain level – for construction SMEs it could create an even worse situation where the client effectively reverts to an open tender proposition. What is needed is the right pre-selection process relevant for the size and type of project that is being procured. Get this right and the client will be presented with a selection of contractors that have the requisite attributes to deliver the project.
Publicly Available Specification (PAS 91) was supposed to streamline the tender process, but take-up is still extremely low. The introduction of the PAS 91 across central government really does have to be extended to ALL local government and public funded procurements for it to be meaningful, as our recent experience shows.
Make this happen… and soon
For [chief construction adviser] Paul Morrell to argue that it’s an impossible task to persuade every local authority and public body to adopt PAS 91 is crazy. Central government has enough levers to be able to make this happen and soon. Guys, the key is in the title ‘public sector procurement’. If local authorities or universities or other public bodies with construction projects are drawing on funds that ultimately come from central government, then one condition of accessing that funding should be the use of PAS 91. End of. Just follow the money trail and put in some regulation, don’t faff around trying to individually tell hundreds of local authorities and quasi-public bodies what to do.
The current iteration of PAS 91 is by no means perfect, and sadly numerous clients and their advisers are proving it is still open to misuse when it is made cumbersome with the addition of irrelevant appendices. That said, industry players really must contribute to the consultation process that has been launched in to how to improve PAS 91. If industry sits on its hands then it has no one else to blame if the next iteration isn’t a massive improvement.
What else needs to happen? For once, it’s not the market that needs to get its act together. Instead, we need to educate clients. They need to know that that they do not have to advertise everything via the OJEU, and they do not have to add to simple systems to make them more complex. Clients, or more often their advisers, often want to take a belt and braces approach in order to protect themselves. If Paul Morrell and [his successor] Peter Hansford were to drive through central government and others covered by the OJEU procurement rules more guidance and education on how to use OJEU and PAS 91 properly, then maybe clients would actually save some taxpayer time and money. Isn’t that what the Government Construction Strategy is all about?
The consultation on PAS 91 is being run by BSI, and is open until Friday 28 September. For more information, please click here www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/news/article.jsp?id=12665
