Government 'can't guarantee' uptake of its standardised PQQ
The government cannot guarantee it is using its own standardised PQQ process in Whitehall construction procurement.
Government 'can't guarantee' uptake of its standardised PQQ
As part of its drive to slash red tape, each government department was supposed to ensure it was using the standard form as of January 2011.
But the failure of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Cabinet Office to police their own policy means they simply do not know whether other ministries have adopted the protocol.
PAS 91 is designed to simplify the PQQ process for subcontractors working in both the private and public sectors.
But the process has failed to catch on either for local authorities or main contractors, who have so far snubbed the form.
The British Standards Institute’s consultation on improving the two-year-old document comes to an end on Friday.
But with stakeholders at the BSI stakeholder workshop last week bemoaning the poor adoption of the standardised form at local authority level, it emerged that the government was not even monitoring its adoption in Whitehall.
The roll-out of the standardised PAS 91 form in government departments has received high-level political backing, appearing as a pledge in the Construction Strategy document in May 2011.
It was then reiterated in the One Year On report earlier this year and guaranteed by Cabinet Office minister Frances Maude in a speech to the Government Construction Summit in July.
But critics warn that the ‘Publically Available Specification 91’ form risks failing unless there is solid backing for its adoption throughout the supply chain.
Electrical Contractors’ Association head of business policy and practice Paul Reeve, who helped draft the original document, said: “There is no evidence anywhere about who is using it and who is not.
“It is very nice to have this high-level support. But government needs to back up its statements.”
The BSI’s PAS project manager Brian Such said that stakeholders had failed to properly sell the scheme when it was launched in 2010.
“There was a lack of follow through by all parties,” he said.
“There was a little bit of fanfare at launch, then it was assumed it would make its own way in life. That clearly proved not to be the case.”
Mr Reeve believes the process can be rescued with a series of tweaks to the document, including the introduction of an optional section on building information modelling, and a big marketing push to sell the benefits of a standardised PQQ form to purchasers.
He has also called for the adoption of PAS 91 as a British standard, which tenderers can attain and present to main contractors as part of an accreditation process.
He said: “PAS 91 needs to become a British Standard as soon as possible. This should be the last time we are looking at revising it as a PAS.
“The government and others need to start measuring and reporting on the actual use of the document in prequalification.
“There is a growing demand by suppliers to be able to show they meet the PAS 91 questions.
“The issue of how to assess, and be assessed, to the questions in PAS 91 needs urgent attention – PAS 91 as it stands cannot deliver this.”
A government spokesman said PAS 91 has been mandated for use in all of central government departments, including their agents and agencies, and all non-departmental public bodies.
The spokesperson said: “We do not centrally monitor the use of PAS 91 by government departments on a contract-by-contract basis; however, we look to industry to help ‘police’ its implementation.
“In the interest of best practice, we frequently publicise our mystery shopper service, and encourage businesses and trade associations to make full use of the service should they believe that government clients are not acting in accordance with appropriate standards.”