The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has recommended that federal procurement of design and construction services be standardized and centralized within a single government branch “with knowledge and expertise” in these two spheres.
BY PATRICIA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has recommended that federal procurement of design and construction services be standardized and centralized within a single government branch “with knowledge and expertise” in these two spheres.
“Design and construction cannot be considered a commodity,” the institute said in a brief to a parliamentary task force conducting a government-wide review of procurement.
“The federal government should consider adopting certain endorsed private-sector industry procedures used in procurement— such as the use of standard contracts and selection and bidding procedures.”
The RAIC suggested that procurement could be centralized within Public Works and Government Services Canada, or “even better” a branch dedicated solely to design and construction.
In its submission, the institute underlined that it is “totally inappropriate” to consider professional services as a commodity and to apply contractual or other selection methods which are used in purchasing commodities.
“Typically, building projects involve a team of several different professionals, often led by an architect or with an architect acting as the prime consultant,” RAIC said.
“Because this team of professionals is not a commodity, the procurement process must reflect this reality.”
The institute said it is “difficult, if not impossible” to write precise professional performance specifications. The very nature of professional services makes it difficult to define and quantify them, RAIC said.
“Consequently, the principles of competitive bidding cannot be applied.”
The institute told the task force that “tried and tested” private sector standards have been developed in Canada for the procurement of construction, administration of construction contracts and dispute resolution by the Canadian Construction Documents Committee, which has industry-wide representation.
“Unfortunately, each department within the federal government has developed its own different set of procedures and construction contracts,” the RAIC said. “The federal government, across all departments, should consider standardization of procedures and documentation in order to achieve efficiencies.”
However, the institute cautioned that procedures should not be adopted that are used in purchasing non-design and construction services.
In the case of architects, RAIC said qualifications-based selection is the best procurement method.
In its brief, the institute also made the point that it would be a “serious concern” if corporate, government-wide management of procurement involved the bundling of contracts or projects into a few single, large packages “and thereby limited the pool of architects that could realistically compete for this work.”
More than 75 per cent of architectural firms in Canada are operated by sole practitioners and have fewer than five people on staff.
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