HA warns councils not to misuse CAT

Ringway Group managing director David Lee told CJ more and more local authorities are asking companies to reveal their scores or be struck off tender lists.

Although Lee did not reveal the names of councils requesting the scores, he said: "Councils are now drawing up their own database of CAT scores, which is totally contrary to what they were intended for. I think the HA has become quite concerned by this."

The HA has warned councils not to use the scores as an indication of a contractor's competence, due to the context of how they are used by the agency.

HA supply chain manager Dave Parker told CJ: "No scores were made available to councils. CAT alone does not take into account a company's past performance, which is an essential element of selection."

Small contractors, largely dependent on local authority contracts, may face a disadvantage when bidding for jobs if councils rate companies using only the HA's system.

To help the situation, Ringway has asked the HA to scale down the importance of CAT by altering the 80% weighting given to CAT scores (the remaining 20% coming from a company's past performance) to 50%.

"The weighting is too high for something that is so new to the industry," Lee said.

Meanwhile, Ringway is looking to bounce back from its low CAT score of 33 when it is reassessed in the autumn. Senior managers across the group have been assigned to improve on the six key areas where it gained low marks.