From the NSW Chapter President

From the NSW Chapter President

NSW Chapter President, Andrew Nimmo
26 November 2018

Procurement

One of the constant complaints that we receive from members is the onerous and unfair nature of the public procurement of architectural services. From poorly written briefs, to proxy competitions, to excessive deliverables; there are a range of recurring problems and the anecdotal evidence is that they are getting worse. Consequently, we are investigating these issues and pursuing action to help establish firm, fair and reasonable commercial conditions for the profession.

Some of the typical problems we hear about are these:

  • Tenders and EOI requiring design concepts without formalizing a recognized competition process, and for no fee;
  • Proponents seeking to recover tender costs by charging a fee to access the tender documents;
  • Discrepancies between proponents’ and architects’ understanding of key terms (eg design concept), leading to discrepancies in deliverables expectations
  • Inadequate or no budget guidance
  • No protection of participants’ Intellectual Property
  • Limited information regarding assessment criteria or the weighting of criteria
  • Excessive deliverables requested for open EOI or Tenders
  • Uninsurable contract conditions
  • Poorly written and/or vague project briefs
  • Risk shifting rather than risk reduction
  • Excessive list of sub-consultants to be briefed and engaged, including those traditionally engaged by the client
  • Conditions of engagement not suitable to consultant engagement, often poorly adapted from construction contracts
  • … and there are many more.

The Chapter has been proactive in these matters, last year establishing a NSW Procurement Taskforce. This now is joined by a national taskforce. Together, these groups of members are gathering data and considering the issues raised.

At the National level, a Procurement Policy is being formulated which will provide best practice guidelines for EOI and RFTs. Once completed, we will disseminate this policy to our membership so that you understand the Institute’s position, and will be equipped to carefully assess whether a particular procurement process is fair and reasonable.

In NSW our aim is to educate local councils about what fair procurement looks like, how it will bring better outcomes and why it is in our mutual interest. In this respect we will work with the GANSW, who we believe share our desire to encourage government agencies to be better clients. We also plan to begin a process of informing members about specific tenders and competitions that do not conform to our policies via a ‘Procurement Alert’. And of course, we want to recognise and promote clients who do procurement well.

However for all this to have impact, we also need members to use their voice. Let clients know when you think their procurement practices are unfair, and explain why, with the backing of the Institute’s written policy. Sometimes to choose to not participate in unfair, unreasonable tenders will be money well saved.


New Executive Director, NSW

We have a new Chapter Executive Director: David Green.

David comes from a senior executive role in the NSW Public Service with responsibility for funding and performance of disability NGOs. His main area of focus was accommodation services and in that role acted as project and program director for a number of large facility projects. He brings significant stakeholder management experience bolstered by previous public service roles in construction contracting, contract dispute management and procurement.

Prior to his work in the public service he had extensive architectural and project management experience, having worked as an architect in both private and public sectors and in firms from medium sized to multi-national. He also has worked in marketing.

I’m sure you will get to know David over the coming months and with me welcome him to the Institute.

David takes the place of Joshua Morrin, who after nearly four years with the Institute is returning to architectural practice with ARM Architecture in their new Sydney office. Joshua has been in the role since the end of 2016 and his time as the ED has mirrored my own as NSW President. During this time Joshua and I have had an extremely close and productive working relationship and I have appreciated his professionalism and commitment to the role. In addition to his time in NSW, Joshua has also managed both the Northern Territory and International Chapters, been acting Project Manager for the Institute’s pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, and Tour Leader of this year’s Dulux Study Tour. We take this opportunity to wish him well and look forward to seeing more of him on this side of the profession.