Highways Agency fights accusations

by Tim Wood



The Highways Agency has hit back at accusations by a structural repair manufacturer that central government departments are not using Constructionline, the Government-backed registration scheme that vets contractors and consultants for their technical and financial competence.

Mark Pearson, managing director of Quadriga Concepts, claimed he was still receiving central government questionnaires from the likes of the courts service, Customs & Excise and HA, some of which were 30 pages long (CJ 8 March p3). He questioned: "If government departments were using Constructionline, why am I still having to fill in the questionnaires, duplicating all the information?"

But Simon Barnes, HA's head of procurement, responded: "HA is making increasing use of Constructionline as a valuable method of prequalifying contractors and consultants for highways works. Generally, we would place a company on to our prequalification list without any further references if it had already registered under the appropriate Constructionline categories.

"Nonetheless, we can require further information before deciding whether to invite that company to tender as Agency projects are often high value and/or technically complex. This often means that submissions directed at a particular project are requested to ensure that a company has the particular expertise and capacity to meet the requirements of the contract."

Barnes added that Quadriga Concepts had responded to an advert inviting interest from companies for a selection of works packages including a construction management pilot that HA is running.

"This is a new form of procurement being explored by HA and so it was anticipated that firms not on the Agency's list, nor registered with Constructionline, might respond. The questionnaire issued therefore included the same areas covered by both the HA's prequalification questionnaire and Constructionline, as well as the specific needs of the CM pilot," said Barnes.