Ruapehu District Council chief executive Cliff Houston explains the council's contracting system.

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 524, 22 February 1994, Page 6

Ruapehu District Council chief executive Cliff Houston explains the council's contracting system.

Since November last year the Council ceased to employ any staff to carry out physical works for operation and maintenance services that are provided by the Council. This was when Ruapehu Construction Ltd (RCL)was fully set up and former Council Works staff were transferred to the Comphny. Over the past three years work has been progressively contracted out and recently reached a stage that virtually all works are contracted. The Council owned company, RCL has been awarded many of the contracts. Some of the contracts were not competitively tendered as the Council is still in a transitional process moving towards full com-

petitive tendering. However, the contract with the most expenditure, the general road maintenance contract, was subject to a competitive process and was awarded by Council to RCL. There are currently more than 50 different contracts operating with the Council and they have been awarded to a wide range.of different contractors, from single local operators to large companies which operate nationally. Contracts have been awarded for fixed periods of time or for a reasonable time to complete a particular job. The longest contract period is the road maintenance contract which was for six years from 1 July last year.

All work contracted out, whether competitively tendered or not, has a specification which specifies the scope of the work, the standards to be achieved and the rates of payment. Previously when work was not contracted out the specification and standards to be achieved were not clear and the payment was made for whatever it cost. As a result of contracting work out, more uniform standards are being applied and achieved through the Ruapehu District, particularly in the roading area where contracting has been operating for the longest

time. Ratepayers will have noticed that rates have not increased significantly over the last three years and this is partially due to the Council' s contracting policy. A recent report by Transit New Zealand has indicated that the Ruapehu Dis-

trict' s roading maintenance ' cost is one of the lowest per kilometre of road in rural north island districts. This is despite the difficult terrain, climate and location. For various reasons maintenance and operation contracts will not alway s be up to standard. Contractors have response times to bring the faults up to complying conditions. These response

times vary according to the nature of the fault. A lack of supply for water would have an immediate response requirement to commence fixing the fault, whereas an overgrown roadside would have up to six weeks to be cut. The public should advise the Council if they believe that work is not up to standard or that a fault has oc-

curred. If the Contractor is advised there is a fault there is no check that the remedial work is carried out. There are only a small number of contract supervisors employed by Council and they are not always able to observe all faults and non-complying conditions and the Council must rely on the public to notify them of problems.