Procurement improvement on agenda at tripartite meeting

CAN chair Ken Parkin recently met with Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy and Advocacy Officer for the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and Chandra Mouli Vemury, chair of Construction Industry Council (CIC) North East.

Andrew made contact following our recent communications relating to procurement concerns in the North East and was keen to discuss similar issues faced by regional contractors as many of their members face very similar issues.

It became apparent that regional contractors and consultants have very similar issues when it comes to securing work, particularly in the public sector. These relate to procurement processes, complexity of documents, proliferation of frameworks and need to re-apply.

Interestingly many members are reporting they are hesitant to raise issues with clients and procurement bodies in fear of this jeopardising winning future work.

The issue of risk was also discussed and restrictive financial and insurance requirements often being a barrier for SMEs. It was striking that the same issues are faced by both SME contractors and consultants alike.

It is time for those making national procurement policy which regional organisations need to comply with to listen to contractors!

CAN, CIC and ACE agreed to collaborate and work together further in the future.