December 14, 2009

Procurement

British Columbia municipalities tighten their grip on tendering

JEAN SORENSEN

correspondent

Metro Vancouver architects, who have designed municipal buildings or structures, are increasingly being cut out of the municipal tendering process.

The reason, said some municipalities, isn’t to save a few dollars, but litigation fears in what is becoming a highly competitive arena with accountability and transparency key issues.

Municipalities want more direct control over the tender distribution and flow of information regarding posted tenders.

“I would say that the trend is more and more to manage ourselves,” said Wolfgang Beier, purchasing manager for the City of North Vancouver. “It is happening in a lot of municipalities.”

North Vancouver has controlled the process for the past two years.

However, some dispute the reasons behind the trend.

Maura Gatensby, the Architectural Institute of B.C.’s (AIBC) director of professional services, said the suggestion that municipal staff can better manage the tender process than the architects, whom have traditionally done this, is a disservice to the profession.

Architects follow strict guidelines in how they issue the tender packages, answer questions and deal with bidders, as required by AIBC bylaws and code of ethics.

“They (the municipalities) may have their reasons for doing this, but it should not be to protect the process,” she said.

It was more reasonable to suggest the measure came as a cost-cutting means rather than gaining advantages in transparency and fairness, she said.

That tendering process, though, is not a large part of the architect’s contract fee and may represent only five percent of the job.

However, if a municipality is going to take over that role, but still rely upon the architect to answer questions from municipal staff that come in regarding the tender package, then the architect should be fairly compensated for the time spent, she said.

Traditionally, architects have designed a municipal structure (swimming pool or public facility) and then sent out the tender packages to the construction industry for bidding.

Architects were also responsible for answering questions related to the package and ensuring that information was then circulated fairly to all bidding parties.

Gatensby, however, pointed out that architects handling the tendering is not a universal concept.

It’s different in the private-sector multi-family residential construction, where the architects have turned it over to the developer (who is often the builder) to search for contractors to do the work.

The shift away from architects has increased within the past five years.

The cities of North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster all indicated that they now control the tender process through their purchasing and supply departments.

Richmond, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody weren’t available for comment. Surrey uses both a traditional and in-house system.

Beier said legal concerns are an issue today.

“If there are bad purchasing practices or when something goes wrong, we want to be able to step in and take control – that’s important,” he said.

As well, Beier added that his municipality is a participant of various trade agreements and therefore posts tenders on its website, as well as on BC Bid.

“Why would I need to deal with a third party?” he asked.

Questions requiring answers are posted as addenums on BC Bid and contractors can subscribe to an automatic update.

Beier said it is a blind system, where city departments don’t know which companies are preparing to bid.

“It is totally impartial. We can’t play favorites and can’t give information to just one party,” he said.

Architects, in their contracts, are asked to answer questions upon request and are compensated for their time, if municipal staff need to contact them.

Burnaby has maintained a firm grip on the tendering process for the past five years, said city purchasing consultant John Miller.

He added that accountability and transparency are key issues and that private architectural firms don’t have to conform to the same degree of transparency that public bodies do.

“We want to make sure everyone is getting the same answers,” he said.

The city adheres to the Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC) protocol.

New Westminster is another jurisdiction concerned about accountability.

City administrator Paul Dominato said that his council has set a protocol for how tenders should be handled and it has become easier to ensure conformity by handling the process in-house.

“One of the reasons this changed during the last couple of years, is that we are a public agency and we have standards and criteria that have to be met,” he said.

Vancouver posts tenders, as well as additional information, on BC Bid.

Surrey’s Violet McGregor, manager of purchasing and payments said the city uses both means of dealing with tenders.

However, architects handle the larger projects.

“We use both,” she said, adding that the city is a major user of consultants, as it doesn’t have the expertise or staff in-house to handle all the projects.

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