Public Procurement
(a) Public Procurement Problems
CEF provides members with a confidential route to resolve their problems with any specific public procurement. CEF has excellent working relationships with all Government Construction Clients and works closely with them to remedy shortcomings in any procurement process.
CEF has successfully resolved a multitude of problems including tendering during holidays, short tendering periods, incorrect use of Constructionline and overly restrictive prequalification criteria.
(b) Public Procurement Policy
Members have the opportunity to help shape and improve the procurement policies and practices of all Government Construction Clients through CEF. Members views are communicated by CEF to the Directors of each of the Government Construction Clients at the Construction Industry Forum.
CEF is seeking procurement policies that provide opportunities for companies of all sizes and in recent years has been particularly focused on ensuring that the process is not biased against smaller companies.
The areas of procurement policy that we are currently progressing include: streamlining prequalification; use of random selection; use of rotas; appropriate price/quality ratios or price only tendering; better use of frameworks; dealing with abnormally low bids; subcontracting issues; and delivering meaningful outcomes from social clauses.
(c) Procurement and Contract Training
Members are entitled to a 25% discount on all procurement and contract courses provided at 143 Malone Road. Recent training courses have included NEC 3 Compensation Events, How to Write Winning PQQs and Estimators Introduction to NEC 3.