Sunday 8 April 2012

Leaders: Building repairs scandal asks questions of tendering process

 

Leaders: Building repairs scandal asks questions of tendering process

SCOTLAND'S local authorities are by far the biggest public-sector spenders in terms of procuring goods and services from the private sector.

It is also clear that while the council's own investigation into what has been happening has been less than transparent, the full rigour of the law is about to be applied. The solution was to allow companies to fill in one set of paperwork testifying to their stability and capacity, which would then put them on an approved supplier list.

In the rest of his group, the recession caused a significant fall in the the importance of his substantial property holdings, so much so that he was forced to bring in a turnaround specialist, Donald Muir, to save the business.

But now that seems to be not enough.

With such a vast budget, it will not be surprising if some cash was being misspent.

What do you have to do to get a ticket for the Olympics? There is the sprint for the online sales and the hurdles of being lucky in the lottery allocation.

It was always very unclear what steel stockholding and trading had to do with property management and call centres, still less with football. The Edinburgh building repairs scandal raises the question, despite systems of competitive tendering, of how easy is it for an unhealthy relationship to develop between contractors and the relevant officials.

One area where there may well be a systemic problem is in the procedures which were designed to make it easier for small companies to bid for public-sector work.

His father, David Hoy, seems to have nobly pulled out of the race, sparing his son the pre-event trauma of having to tell his father: "Sorry, dad, however, you are going to have to watch it on the telly. He did so while overcoming the trauma of losing his legs in a car accident, which only added to the admiration in which he was held. Should he give his tickets to his parents, his wife, or his sister?. Criminal charges against council staff now seem probable, and lawsuits against the council and contractors by aggrieved householders are also on the horizon.

But now, as if the astonishing calamity which has befallen Rangers FC was not enough to increase question marks about his business sense, comes news that he is selling the metals company which has been the core of his career.

In some cases, there is a suspicion that these lists have become closed. The investigation needs to go wider than just this particular Edinburgh case.

Until a few months ago, Sir David Murray would undoubtedly have been ranked as one of the most successful Scottish business people of modern times. In the building trade, many will depend upon the public sector for a large part of their trade.

Sir Chris has been allocated, as indeed has every competitor, just two tickets for the events in which he is competing.

.

Leaders: Building repairs scandal asks questions of tendering process



Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 08/04/2012

 

No comments:

Post a Comment