A Journey of Change Contract Procurement - City Waters

The development of the new City Waters Maintenance Contract was an important project in 2011/2012. The Contract’s budget exceeds $5million per year and would be a 4 year performance based contract with extensions up to 4 years. 

This was the start of a long journey. There was a changing political environment due to recessionary pressures at that time that needed consideration. Smaller contractors wanted to be given the opportunity to form a relationship with Council. It was thought that cost savings could be gained by managing segments of work separately from the main underground contract, these were identified as activity areas that did not require a 24/7 service delivery. 

The procurement process was managed in-house. The process started August 2012 and went through ROI, invited RFP, price clarification and negotiation phases. In total 21 responses were evaluated. 

At the completion of this process it was found that the most efficient and effective delivery of the Contract(s) was through one Contractor. In March 2013 one whole work package was offered to Downer NZ. 

With only 90 days to transition the Contract into the new environment both parties were presented with a number of challenges. Significant challenges were around business systems integration and human resources.