Regional Procurement - May 2013
By Regional Procurement Coordinator, Steven Cosatto...
Procurement Committee
The FNQROC Procurement Committee would like to thank Mal Skipworth from MacDonnells Law and David Honeyman from the Crime and Misconduct Committee (CMC) for making themselves available and providing presentations to the group's recent meeting on 19 April 2013.
The CMC's presentation reviewed the recent ICAC report into corruption within NSW Local Government and also provided information on recent cases within Queensland Local Government.
MacDonnells' presentation reviewed recent changes to the Local Government Act and information regarding de-amalgamation.
The delivery of such presentations to the group in this forum has been invaluable – the group is able to ask questions, receive expert opinion and receive feedback from other members. This type of process review is unable to occur in larger groups, eg. at a conference. This "face to face" approach is certainly more favourable and beneficial. It is encouraging to see the CMC take a proactive role in regional Queensland.
Water and Waste
It has been pleasing to observe one of the benefits of FNQROC collaboration. Through a collation of test results the FNQ Water and Waste Treatment coordinators identified that nonconforming product had been supplied to various locations within the region within a specified date range. Initially, individual Councils had difficulty in receiving supplier recognition of their concerns, however the collective test results provided unarguable documentation to the supplier, who was able to identify a contaminated rail container (the product which left their plant met quality assurance requirements). They acknowledged the non-conforming product and credited the affected Councils.
Bitumen Reseal
The Project Steering Committee (PSC) advertised for interested suppliers to tender for the collective Councils' individual resealing programs. Although there is still considerable work required to finalise the project, I would like to congratulate the PSC on this project milestone which could not have been achieved without the member Councils' willingness to work as a collective.
The PSC through their workshops, benchmarking and feedback received from the market through the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process identified areas for enhancement that a regional approach would address, these areas include:
• individual Councils competing against each other for resources
• regional alignment of Local Government work standards, specifications and testing requirements to the Department of Main Roads
• regional alignment of safety, quality and environment requirements
• earlier than usual release of indicative work programs (allowing contractor organisation of resources)
• reduce cost to businesses in the submission of tender responses (one tender as opposed to four)
This process also will collect important information such as company financials, accreditations, insurance details etc. The PSC also will utilise this tender process to create a Register of Pre-Qualified Suppliers with the aim of reducing bureaucracy and providing Councils with the ability to scope other capital projects.