Ringway's honesty puts it at bottom of CAT table

Honesty and a lack of guidance have led Ringway to post a Highways Agency (HA) Capability Assessment Toolkit (CAT) score of just 33.
Ringway's score is well below the average CAT score of 54 (from a maximum of 72) and has rooted it at the bottom of the HA's league table.
Ringway Specialist Treat-ments managing director Rob Gillespie told CJ that the group had been a
"victim of its own success".
"We are very supportive of CAT. It's a good driver for change, but people have to understand that this is not lip service. While we do not agree with all the findings of the CAT validation, we have accepted the score."
Gillespie insisted that Ringway is "not embarrassed" by the score and that the group had been very honest in its submission, making no attempt to put new procedures in place to accommodate the first CAT validation.
He added: "The CAT process brought with it a complex system and little guidance on its interpretation and completion. We are sure that this will have resulted in many different approaches by companies."
Gillespie said Ringway decided to have the whole group assessed by the HA's validation teams rather than just those parts of the company that deal with the agency.
"What you will find with other larger contractors is that they have decided to have only certain sections validated as they were under the impression that CAT would be used only on major projects. Of course, now it is being used on maintenance," he said.
"I think the next round of re-assessments will make interesting reading. Complacency is fatal as CAT is about continuous improvement. You might find that some companies will just sit back and relax now that they have scored highly. I know that we will make impressive increases in our scores when we are next assessed," Gillespie concluded.
n Contractors will be expected to reassess their CAT scores in May/June 2005. Validations will be carried out between July and October, with ratification of scores following in November. Contractors will not need to self-score parts of their business that scored well in the last assessment.