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O’Rourke told to beef up Scots school bid
10:17 15 Sep 2005
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Laing O’Rourke has been told to seriously toughen up and improve its bid on Edinburgh City Council’s £180m PPP2 schools contract, or face the possibility of the scheme being retendered.
O’Rourke, which forms part of the Axiom Education consortium along with ABN Amro Bank, is the only remaining bidder for the PPP scheme after Balfour Beatty, part of the Transform Schools consortium with Innisfree, pulled out of the running last week.
Balfour’s offer to walk away was accepted by the council after it told the client that it had received secret information via a third party, who had sought and received the information from a senior council employee.
Lothian and Borders Police has launched a formal investigation into events surrounding the contract and the council has sacked the staff member who leaked the details.
CJ understands that O’Rourke’s bid was the weaker of the two and sources claim that the contractor has to make up quite a bit of ground to match Balfour’s bid.
However, a full council meeting tomorrow (Thursday) is expected to agree to stick with O’Rourke’s bid to see whether it can be improved, although it is not sure how long the contractor will have to do this.
Although the council is putting its faith in O’Rourke, there is still the strong possibility that the contract could be retendered if the bid doesn’t provide best value for money.
A delay of at least a year is expected on the contract, which is the largest current schools project in Scotland and will eventually provide six secondary schools and two primary schools in the Edinburgh area.
“We have other options for the contract, but we are not prepared to discuss them at the moment,” a council spokeswoman said.
“We have been scrutinising the legal, financial and contractual issues to find the best way forward,” she added. “Axiom needs to improve on its design and cost submission so that we can be satisfied we can press ahead with it.”
O’Rourke would not comment on the claims.
Lothian and Borders Police told CJ that it was still investigating the case.
O’Rourke, which forms part of the Axiom Education consortium along with ABN Amro Bank, is the only remaining bidder for the PPP scheme after Balfour Beatty, part of the Transform Schools consortium with Innisfree, pulled out of the running last week.
Balfour’s offer to walk away was accepted by the council after it told the client that it had received secret information via a third party, who had sought and received the information from a senior council employee.
Lothian and Borders Police has launched a formal investigation into events surrounding the contract and the council has sacked the staff member who leaked the details.
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CJ understands that O’Rourke’s bid was the weaker of the two and sources claim that the contractor has to make up quite a bit of ground to match Balfour’s bid.
However, a full council meeting tomorrow (Thursday) is expected to agree to stick with O’Rourke’s bid to see whether it can be improved, although it is not sure how long the contractor will have to do this.
Although the council is putting its faith in O’Rourke, there is still the strong possibility that the contract could be retendered if the bid doesn’t provide best value for money.
A delay of at least a year is expected on the contract, which is the largest current schools project in Scotland and will eventually provide six secondary schools and two primary schools in the Edinburgh area.
“We have other options for the contract, but we are not prepared to discuss them at the moment,” a council spokeswoman said.
“We have been scrutinising the legal, financial and contractual issues to find the best way forward,” she added. “Axiom needs to improve on its design and cost submission so that we can be satisfied we can press ahead with it.”
O’Rourke would not comment on the claims.
Lothian and Borders Police told CJ that it was still investigating the case.
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