Submission on the Draft Building and Construction Procurement Guide

Our position in summation is:
• Different pre-qualifications in different agencies and state governments, is inefficient
and time consuming especially with contractors operating between jurisdictions. Such
impediments to doing business do not support an open, efficient and competitive
market;
• There must be transparency in relation to how to become qualified, how to move
between qualification grades and how the criteria for qualification are applied in a
consistent, open and fair manner;
• There needs to be flexibility at a local or state level to deal with local issues to ensure
that smaller contractors in particular are competing on a level playing field. Flexibility
is particularly critical in relation to the harmonisation principles – what is appropriate
in one jurisdiction may be for local reasons not appropriate in another.
In other words our support for mutual recognition and harmonisation are not without
qualification.
Additionally, we believe that the words “prequalification is to be used where appropriate”
provide an important qualifier.
One of the important points we have made previously is the criticality of maintaining capacity
in the small to mid-sector. Prequalification schemes can act as a disincentive to growth due
to the fact that they invariably require the maintenance of systems and processes which are
time, labour and cost intensive.
A small contractor simply cannot afford to invest in such developments unless they can see
with some certainty a future work stream. Additionally, it can lead to a concentration or
reduction of competition and we have been advised of situations where a prequalified
contractor has won the work and sub-contracted to non prequalified contractors which raises
the question as to why the prequalification was required in the first place.
(b)
Cost of tendering
We are pleased to see this recognised in the draft principles however much will need to be
done to improve the situation for contractors. This is a complex issue as it also involves the
15