A Brief Word... CONSTRUCTION • PUBLIC WORKS • NATURAL RESOURCES English Edition Volume 21 Number 6 June/July 2016 Though the weather was excellent for the AORS Trade Show in Sturgeon Falls recently, pity the attendance was light. It did, however, allow for some good conversations amongst attendees, and one to which I was privy con- PUBLISHER cerned “low bid wins”. Jean-François Villard
[email protected] Is the Walmart model the one which was intended, when the tender process CONTRIBUTING EDITORS was originally introduced as a replacement for the “Old Boy” network method Rob Holden of contract award? The consensus was no, but that is what we have and it is Paul Vanderzon costing us money as governmental budgets get ever tighter.
[email protected] A competitive price is a good thing, but without a “Value Assessment”, is ADVERTISING SALES
[email protected] the cheapest the best? A road construction/paving contract that legitimately won by being the lowest bidder was used as an example. Unfortunately the TELEPHONE contractor failed to secure a specialist piece of equipment and could not 514-233-1295 perform the work as engineered. Fearing penalty and censure, they chose 613-862-1295 to convince the inspection engineer into accepting a lesser method which 416-795-1295 undermined the original intention of the design engineering specification. FAX: 514-528-9932 The result was a job completed, within the ascribed cost. The hidden result is a fault waiting to happen and the design life cycle of the project being ADDRESS CHANGES compromised. Send us your address changes by E-Mail to:
[email protected] The conversation concluded that there is a significant difference between Cost and Value, and any purchasing method that can balance these will save MAILING ADDRESS money in both the short and long term.