CECA attacks HA

CECA past chairman Trevor Walker delivered his damning speech in front of senior HA board members at its Highways Agency Day at Birmingham's NEC.

Walker, who is Edmund Nuttall's business development director, said that both the government and the HA had misled the industry over the 10-Year Transport Plan.

"We're equipped - but where is the construction work?" he asked. "Don't tell us everything's alright and going to plan when it isn't. We understand programmes slip. The quicker we know, the quicker we can adjust and modify. Be open, be honest," he said.

Furthermore, Walker warned: "Keep to your time frames; we have to keep to ours. It is galling to work all the hours God sends to get a PQ, a tender or an answer back to you by a deadline only then to find that you let your response time slip, usually without explanation."

HA procurement director Steve Rowsell responded: "We do work hard to stick to time frames, but sometimes this is not always helped because tenderers don't always submit in a clear or comprehensive way."

Walker also said: "It really does cause contractors concern if job values fluctuate from PIN to PQ to tender. It makes it very difficult to pick the supply chain, the correct designers and joint venture partners," he stressed.

Rowsell told CJ: "We have sought to make costings very clear and will continue to do so in the future."

Walker asked the HA to reassure contractors that it is applying transparent and consistent standards when procuring. He blasted the Capability Assessment Toolkit (CAT) process, which has seen contractors invest large amounts of money, only to find high-scoring contractors "arbitrarily removed from tender lists" because they had reached a maximum market share.

Rowsell said: "With CAT there will be no arbitrary removal of firms. CAT is used in combination with past performance data. However, there may be times when the agency needs to take into account strategic considerations, such as market share."