The Water Industry Liaison Committee (WILC) has stakeholders represented from water authorities in the metro and regional areas, and industry associations (ALDE, Civil Contractors Federation (CCF), UDIA, ACSV and contractors that undertake significant capital works for the water authorities.)
ALDE raised the following for discussions at WILC:
Lowest acceptable tender for reimbursement
- Reimbursement for sewer works is being based on the lowest priced tender, even though the Contractor does not have capacity to commence work in a suitable timeframe.
- Cost difference can be significant and due to budget constraints, the lowest conforming tender must be appointed.
- Significant delays can be attributed to this which have an impact on the project and extra eduction time.
- The MRWAs expectation with ALDE members is to deliver assets to the highest level of quality and safety but reimbursement is to the lowest possible price, with a claim that this is because their hands are tied with respect to tendering.
- Current tender assessments undertaken by water companies is purely on price, without consideration of capability, capacity, safety, timeliness, contractor history & experience, relationships (eg. with head works contractor or Council), personnel, or tendency for variations.
Requirement for minimum of five (5) years’ experience for construction auditors, ALDE put forward a number of options for consideration which included;
- An auditor having all the necessary qualifications and evidence of 12months mentoring from a suitably qualified auditor to be provisionally approved.
- Full accreditation could require a further 2 years of experience post provisional approval.
- The company would still be required to have at least 1 fully accredited auditor so that the more complex issues can be resolved.
Melbourne Retail Water Authories (MRWA) have launched a Safety page and are seeking feedback on the content.
If you would like to contribute, please direct any feedback to our executive officer Karen Leoncelli.
