News that some schools were at last being released by the Education Funding Agency has come as welcome relief to work starved contractors, but as many questions have been raised as answered about the future procurement methodology for all public sector infrastructure.
Blog and Comment
Blacklisters face backlash
We have reported relatively little about the blacklisting scandal that was uncovered following a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office on an organisation that few had previously heard of and is now defunct called the Consulting Organisation, in 2009.
Construction can’t wait
We report briefly in News on the capability review set up by Commercial Secretary to the Treasury Lord Deighton to assess whether the public sector procurement staff involved with infrastructure have the right commercial and project management skills in place. To equally briefly sum up what his review must conclude – no, they don’t.
Routemap to good memories?
A draft best practice guide to delivery of large scale infrastructure projects has been published as part of the government’s Cost Review programme that confirms Private Finance Initiative replacement PF2 as its preferred private financing approach, and supports the use of the NEC standard form contract on public sector projects.
PFI focus on risk
The construction sector still languishes in the depths of recession, but a need for as much as £400,000 million of new infrastructure projects to get started by 2020 suggests that this situation shouldn’t last too much longer.
Comment: Procurement off the rails
A full report of an independent inquiry into the InterCity West Coast (ICWC) franchise fiasco was to be published shortly after we went to press, but even a cursory read of the interim report from the inquiry led by Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw reveals that the scale of the public sector’s procurement problems is vast.
The draft Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill 2012
In September 2012 the government published the Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill 2012.
Procurement malaise spreads
Earlier this year ((2012) 23.2 CL p 1, Editor’s Comment) we reported on yet another promised procurement shake up in central government. Fewer than half of major government projects were being delivered on time and to budget and a new initiative was announced to train 145 senior civil servants to take over project management roles currently being undertaken by consultants.
Disputes still growing
Thanks in part to the UK’s construction industry being so litigious, the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) has become an acknowledged world leader in the field of handling technical disputes. Information on how it goes about its work is sought by judges and others in many jurisdictions.
Trying to pin down excellence
One of the most overworked words in construction marketing literature and branding exercises over the past 20 years has been ‘excellence’. Engineers have always cringed at its use; they, and others, instinctively recognise that what isn’t even defined can’t possibly be measured.