Procurement - Construction Services

Procurement professionals in the public sector can reverse the legacy of rampant economic and environmental waste, and failure to meet their responsibility of stewardship of the built environment.

Due primarily to a fundamental lack of continuous competent leadership and a pervasive culture to preserve the 'status quo' public sector procurement of construction (repair, renovation, maintenance, and new builds) and facilities management services suffers from the following serious issues.

? Indifference

? Lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities

? Inadequate regulatory compliance oversight capabilities and tools

Indifference – The primary motivation for public sector procurement professionals in today's environment is to do things as quickly as possible rather than to deliver quality for the best possible value, on time and on budget. Concerns raised by builders, building users, the private sector, constituents, and oversight groups (GAO, third-party independent auditors) are often not understood, or ignored. Some even inappropriately leverage the "power" and /or lack of regulations and guidance to game the system.

Lack of clarity of and/or poorly defined roles and responsibilities – Construction and facilities management require a level of technical expertise as well as process management acumen. For example, procurement professionals must be able to work directly with facilities management professionals to evaluate detailed line-item contractor proposals, working collaboratively with design/builders to fully define scope of work requirements from technical and cost perspectives. This issue is magnified by the current fragmentation within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction sectors. These issues serve to precluding robust ownership of accountability.

? Inadequate regulatory oversight and enforcement tools – The fundamental lack of understanding and support for robust, integrated, LEAN planning, procurement, and project delivery methods has enabled an environment with a lack of financial visibility and transparency. Management is thus impossible with actionable information. In addition, where enforcement is necessary, it is often not pursued, and where it is pursued, the penalties are so small as to be an ineffective deterrent. For example, when inappropriate procurement activities are known to have occurred, "oversight groups" typically allow the procurement to continue and simply note the associated issue.

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