黑洞社区

Contractors will be asked to explain themselves if they submit unrealistically low bids for public sector contracts, according to a senior official at the business department.

Fergus Harradence, deputy director for infrastructure and construction at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, said any bids which appear unrealistically low will be rejected unless the bidder comes up with a plausible reason.

Harradence said unrealistic bidding meant the government did not get the quality projects it wants.

He said: 鈥淲e need to get away from a situation where people are only able to make a profit by putting pressure on their supply chains鈥�that is what led to Carillion.

鈥淲e need the industry to behave responsibly and embed the rigorous comprehensive approach to quality that has been so successful in manufacturing.鈥�

Harradence also said lowball bids lead to poor payment practices and unfair contract conditions that passed too much risk down the supply chain.

He confirmed that as part of the implementation of the Construction Playbook firms who underbid would face a detailed interrogation.

Harradence told a webinar hosted by the 黑洞社区 Engineering Services Association: 鈥淚f they have a good explanation that鈥檚 fine but it is better for projects to appear to cost more 鈥� than us having to go cap in hand to the Treasury for more money further down the line.

鈥淲e need to spend more time and money at the start of the process to get the design right. That will give clients greater reassurance that they will get the quality asset they need 鈥� and BIM can support that by giving a realistic production schedule and more transparency.鈥�

Harradence also spoke about the government鈥檚 push for the use of modern methods of construction, saying that as much as 拢35bn of the 拢50bn worth of projects currently in the central government pipeline could be built using offsite.