A Brave New World for Infrastructure Procurement? We Certainly Need One

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Do infrastructure projects always deliver the outcomes customers need and expect, and do greater challenges in delivering value and efficiency lie ahead? If not, what do we need to do differently to change the situation? If we don’t change something fairly significant in the practice, we can hardly hope to make the radical impact on outcomes that we need to see.

The logical place to start to change the end result is at the beginning with procurement. And not so much the process of procurement, but more the environment and spirit in which procurement is practiced.

Here’s what we all want:

Better quality,
Shorter project timings,
More resilient infrastructure assets,
Less long-term disruption for travellers,
More social value delivered through projects,
More output for less budget,
More innovation,
Better collaboration between all stakeholders.

But is any of that actually being purchased? Does the current one-dimensional procurement environment encourage or discourage the delivery of any of those benefits?

Or, are power driven procurement and contractual relationships still rooted in adversarial approaches and lack of trust? Is the work of contractors that go the extra mile largely unrecognised and unrewarded? If this remains the case, we are likely to remain locked in mutual suspicion and delivering ‘to the letter of the contract.’

Lowest Cost, Lowest Value?

Moving from lowest cost to best value isn’t just an issue for procurement bodies. Contractors need to do a better job of defining what best value looks like and providing clear route maps and accountability to ensure it is delivered. If we choose to cut our margin to the bone to win a particular contract, we need to remember what this means for the bigger picture.

To move to a healthier environment, we need: