I would like to congratulate Joe Morana on the content of his letter (December 6) on the subject of the Manwel Dimech Road bridge. Well written and to the point, I could not have done it better!
Where the fault lies is either with the minister, the government procurement department or the awards department. But which remains to be seen or proven. I know where my answer would be!
Please allow me to relate the way to place contracts.
As a former senior buyer in the construction industry for chemicals, oil and gas, where I worked for well over 20 years in the United Kingdom, it was incumbent upon the "purchaser" to firstly ensure that sealed bids were received by the bid closing date. On opening of these bids, on an agreed day, the bid prices received would be noted together with the delivery time in weeks.
When reviewing the bids, those which were of sufficient interest, the bidder would be invited to attend a meeting when all the technical and commercial points would be addressed.
Should any bidders not have completely addressed the specification or commercial terms sent with the inquiry or had, by accident, provided an incomplete bid, they would then be given a further opportunity to send in a revised bid by a stipulated time.
Once all bids, which were of substance, were reviewed, then bidders offering the best quotation in terms of price and technical content would be invited in for a further meeting before any award of the contract.
Once a contract had been placed with an agreed delivery to a site or other, and having known the technical content of the purchaser's requirements, any changes made by the purchaser, and only the purchaser, and which might result in additional costs by the contractor, would be looked at in a sympathetic way by the purchaser. At no time would the purchaser agree to changes, unless they were acceptable and any costs would be down to the contractor.
We would also have included a back-to-back agreement as either a bonus for early completion or liquidated damages as a penalty for late delivery not attributed to changes by the buyer.
If only, commerce would wake up to such terms in a contract then one would always have game, set and match.