CLAIMS OF anarchy in the tendering and procurement system for public sector building projects and prejudice against small and emerging firms have been made at an Oireachtas committee.
Paul Keogh of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland told the enterprise committee that “some public tenders breached EU procurement regulations, were anti-competitive and prioritised age over quality”.
Mr Keogh, a member of the Construction Industry Council, also criticised the bureaucracy involved in tendering and said that in one case the building of a school projected to start in 1999 had only just begun. But the council, which made a presentation to the committee was sharply criticised by Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton who described as “bizarre” and “totally worthless” the council’s analysis of the Government’s revised infrastructure spending plan.
The council did not analyse the best projects for a strong economic return. “You don’t invest for the job content; you have to invest because there’s a return,” Mr Bruton said.
Director general of the Construction Industry Federation Tom Parlon, a member of the council, said thousands of children were still being taught in prefab buildings and substantial rent was being paid for the prefabs. “You wouldn’t have to be an economist or have done honours maths to work out that the economics of that doesn’t make sense.”
Ned O’Keeffe (FF, Cork East) said, however, that “I’d build all the national schools that are required in this country in one year. There’s not that many out there needed at all.”
The Construction Industry Council represents 45,000 architects, engineers, surveyors and contractors and made a presentation about its document Building a Better Ireland which Mr Keogh said was launched before the Government’s announcement on Monday of its revised spending plan. The council highlighted proposals for social employment schemes for architects, engineers and surveyors to create an asset register of every public building in the State.
Mr Keogh also said procurement and tendering for professional services seemed to be “really prejudiced against emerging practices, smaller firms” of architects based on experience and not quality. He said “there’s no premium put on innovation, but on experience for experience sake”.
He said that in one €5 million schools tender 50 detailed submissions from contractors were received. They had to be carefully analysed because of EU regulation. “At the end of the day 49 of them get thrown in the bin. There must be a better way to move projects forward.”
His practice was involved in a school project that started in 1999 and was now in construction.
Labour Senator Brendan Ryan said unemployment appeared a more urgent issue when architects and engineers lost their jobs “yet so many builders, labourers and blocklayers have been unemployed before this”.
John Lombard of the Association of Consultant Engineers Ireland said they had been warning of this since 2007.
