Procurement Committee discusses client engagement and procurement issues

06/07/2020

The RSUA Procurement Committee held an online meeting on Thursday 2 July to conduct its business. The Committee is chaired by RSUA Director Ciarán Fox.

At the meeting the Committee agreed to a number of client engagement meetings that will be hosted over the coming months. In particular, the Committee agreed to engage with Belfast City Council to seek an update on the Regeneration Framework for Professional Services. The Committee also hopes to meet with representatives from NIHE for an update on their plans for a framework.

The group also discussed a range of matters relating to procurement, including whether membership of a professional body, as opposed got registration with ARB solely, should be a requirement for public sector projects. The group also discussed various procurement issues faced as a result of lockdown restrictions and the benefit of alerting clients to potential issues and, finally, the group discussed reasons for public procurement in Northern Ireland to move away from the appointment of economic operators toward the appointment of individual core disciplines.

Members were asked to forward examples of deviation from good practice in public procurement to Ciarán via e-mail ciaran@rsua.org.uk