Most council contracts awarded on lowest cost

The majority of local authority contracts are awarded on the basis of lowest cost and fail to adopt partnering, according to a damning report by the Specialist Engineering Contractors' Group.
The report, Construction Procurement - is local government applying best value?, surveyed 528 specialists involved in local authority contracts across England, Scotland and Wales.
A shocking 88% of respondents reported that most, if not all, of their contracts won in England and Scotland were let on lowest price alone, despite government recommendations to the contrary.
Wales fared better with 40% of those surveyed stating that either less than half or none of their contracts were won on a lowest price basis.
Even more surprising was the discovery that 90% of those questioned revealed a majority of local authority contracts did not involve partnering and alliances.
Of the 3% of specialist contractors experiencing partnering on all their contracts, half of them reported that all of their contracts were let on lowest price. Most of the remainder admitted that the majority of their partnering agreements were lowest price-based.
An amazing 60% said that quality criteria had not been adopted in the awarding of any of their contracts. Just 21% stated quality had been a factor - but only in less than half of their contracts.
The lowest price mentality continues through the supply chain, with 64% of those surveyed reporting that main contractors let their contracts on a lowest price basis. In Scotland this figure rose to 90%.
The report did bring some good news with the discovery that 67% of those surveyed did not experience problems with payment on up to half of their contracts. In Wales this figure rose to 80%.
However, half of the respondents had trouble getting retention monies out of main contractors.