“My name is Dan Tyler, Senior Procurement Officer Dan Tyler. That much I do know. The rest is anyone’s guess because one minute I was in 2011 the next – bang I’m in 1983! So the question now is what happened? Why am I here? I’ve stepped back, right back into a deep dark world of compulsory competitive tendering and mandatory contract clauses. The only collaboration going on round here is when procurement colleagues join together to give the same contractor a good kicking! Contracts with paid when paid and set off clauses are the norm and the nearest thing to early contractor involvement is when we meet our pet contractors at the pub on Friday lunchtime and they get their hands in their pockets first to get a round in. I’m not sure why I’m here but I do know that I need to find my way back home and back to the world of procurement in 2011.”
Could this be the narrative from a new BBC action drama chronicling the desperate efforts of a Procurement Officer trapped in the past to get back to the future? Perhaps. But this could well be the real life scene if we took the advice of those who lurk on the touchlines calling for intelligent public sector frameworks to be replaced by some other form of procurement process.
The progress that intelligent frameworks have made in delivering efficiency, employment and skills outcomes, socioeconomic opportunity and waste / carbon reduction are well documented. Reports from government, wider public sector and private sector all point unequivocally at improvement and efficiency throughout the construction process. In addition in times of real economic hardship and severe market conditions frameworks continue to provide an intelligent and value adding environment for the procurement and delivery of construction projects. So why is it that we continue to hear the chorus of disapproval from the “framework deniers”?
Well it is the Nativity season and due to the nature of frameworks and the process to form them some contractors simply cannot find any room at the inn. In the worst cases they can’t even hutch up in the stable.
No one likes being left out in the cold and it could be all that stamping of feet and denying the progress made by frameworks that keeps them warm. Within Yorkshire and the Humber we’ve seen the formation of frameworks with many excellent Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) making the final cut. Indeed on our own E N Procure Elemental Works Framework we have close to 80% of contractors as SME’s with 65% being small or micro SME’s. Who says big is beautiful?
In case you hadn’t noticed the 80’s are back, bringing with them those hard to carry off Dayglo leggings, puffball hair, giant earrings and slash neck tops. Those harsh individualistic fashions were matched in their day by harsh procurement practices, which had little or no regard for the collaborative agenda. Processes based upon compulsory competitive tendering and the race to the bottom were the modus operandi and the supply chain (aka box shifters and subbies) was the place that simply consumed our commercial pain. Oh yes, many a time you would take your seat at the negotiating table with the strains of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes reverberating through the body language of those negotiating. Perhaps it’s this nostalgia that encourages industry commentators to speak so negatively about frameworks?
The good news is we are not in 1983 and whilst Cadbury’s cream eggs were bigger then, kids TV was not dominated by middle class cartoons and without doubt the music was better and had a conscience I can say with great confidence that procurement practice is much, much better here and now in 2011.
Frameworks have certainly improved the levels of collaboration and early contractor engagement in terms of public sector procurement and the socioeconomic outcomes have contributed greatly to the lives of many people within the stake holding community of projects delivered through frameworks. Any kind of step back from this is quite simply a non thinking argument. So, in the context of the 80’s, when it comes to intelligent collaborative construction frameworks FRANKIE SAYS – FRAMEWORK DENIERS READ THE FACTS!
