Contract And Procurement

Contract And Procurement
Discuss on the article posted below while raising one important question to keep the discussion going.The Topic is on Procurement Issues.

Project reviews to integrate procurement, risk management and contractual obligations in the construction and service industries. How do in-house and external review modes fair against each other?
In construction, design-build processes have taken on behemoth status when light is shed on the concept of identification and co-ordination of cross disciplinary information and activities that accompany robust design and construction processes, that have been proven to be highly relevant for the success of a construction project(Akbiyikli and Eaton, 2012). For successful integration of procurement, risk management and contractual obligations into any structure/process, coordination is necessary, hence an external (bird?s eye view) review, to observe benchmark and proffer corrective measures. Whether it is a change process or not, there needs to be a clear picture on what is workable and what is not for both parties, with regards to stipulations in possible renegotiations over contractual issues (supply and delivery terms) concerning updated procurement strategy and its associated risks. According to literature, the establishment of design-build procurement and the heightened use of private finance initiative have led to earlier contractor involvement from the onset of the design process. Perhaps, this is point where reviews normally start from, the design phase. Communication paths between design team, construction and procurement contractors, stakeholders etc are evaluated for process integrity. Such is a predecessor to project scope appraisal on specifications, requirements, assignment of risk responsibility role and work breakdown structure etc. Actually, what, when and how resources are needed will determine the type of procurement service to be prescribed, and as such design planning, construction planning, risk anticipation & planning, procurement planning, communication planning and service contracting (design-build- procure process) are all done simultaneously. Borrowing from Akbiyikli and Eaton(2012), reviews should ensure correct interpretation of all project requirements, with a consistent format of technical and cost verification reports, design analysis audit trail and schedule tracking as set out in the project/ procurement/ risk management and contract execution plans.
In the service industry, borrowing from defense reports by Markowski and Wylie (2011), reviews can be made with emphasis on procurement cost driven relationships between government agencies and private suppliers. Regarding contractual obligations, the private supplier is more disposed to cutting costs than exceeding expectations. The customer specifies the scope of required procurement service task and agrees to the term of delivery with the service provider, despite the uncertainty surrounding what should be procured, the ability to pay for the required and the capacity to deliver on time and within budget. This is loophole that is normally exploited in in-complete contracts by private suppliers. The notion lies on the idea that the subject agency does not enter into agreement with suppliers that consider every scenario of what could influence what is to be procured and what delivery strategy that will be best prescribed prior to costing. Given that the customer might be less informed of the actual cost of service production and opportunities for cost and product innovation, the contract might be vague enough to allow for product quality or procurement service degradation on the customer, without it been seen as a contractual breach (Markowski and Wylie, 2011). A review in this scenario should prescribe in-depth clarification of customer scope/ procurement, establish requirements, evaluate terms of agreement/ delivery strategy with suppliers and tackle bureaucratic communication obstacles to knowledge and risk sharing.
In-house reviews might not be so different from external audits, but there is a tendency to overlook external influences on the project at hand. Established internal processes, however flawed are preserved, with focus mainly on the service provided by the supplier. Also, the impact of organizational management politicking, the role of incentives, indifference to cost and time constraints will be distinguishing factors that influence the outcome characteristics of internal reviews. External audits are more objective and non-biased.
References :
Akbiyikli; R, Eaton; D, (2012) Design and design management in building projects: A Review. e-journal of the new world science academy, 7(1) pp 322 -333.
Markowski; S, Wylie; R, (2011) Using commercial discipline to improve Australian defense procurement: misplaced enthusiasm? Journal of contemporary economic policy, 30(3), pp 448 ? 462.
Laureate (2012) ?Contracts and Procurement,? Week 7: Procurement for competitive perfomance, University of Liverpool, Laureate International Universities [Online] (Accessed on: December 27, 2012).
Sollish, F, Semanik, J., Morris, P.W.G. (ed.) & Pinto, J.K. (ed.) (2011). Planning and administering project contracts and procurement. Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

 
ORDER THIS ESSAY HERE NOW AND GET A DISCOUNT !!!

You can place an order similar to this with us. You are assured of an authentic custom paper delivered within the given deadline besides our 24/7 customer support all through.