RIAI Seeks Discussion on Procurement Processes for Schools with Minister for Education
Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Institute says architects are losing jobs and firms are being placed in jeopardy by Department of Education’s delays in paying fees.
The RIAI has written to the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Batt O’Keeffe TD, to seek a meeting about procurement processes for schools.
In this context, the RIAI wish to discuss with the Minister and his officials the following:
- How capital can be best invested in schools;
- How architects could contribute positively to sustainable, sturdy, economical and beautiful schools for the future and ensure that these are inexpensive to maintain and have minimum demand on fossil fuels;
- How we can help society achieve it’s aims for school building;
- The positive and negative aspects of the recent procurement systems – standard stage process, accelerated standard procurement, PPP and Design Build Projects.
In addition, John Graby, RIAI Director, says that one of the issues that the Institute wants to raise with Minister O’Keeffe is the long delay in fee payments by the Department of Education and Science that many architectural practices are experiencing. According to Mr Graby, these delays are leading to job losses and are putting some architectural practices in jeopardy due to cash flow problems.
“Delays in fee payments destroy relationships, encourage ‘blame gaming’ and create massive cash flow difficulties for architects and others. Architects’ work on school building projects can go unpaid for up to 12-15 months, particularly where the school itself is acting as the devolved client. These delays in payment are causing substantial problems for architects who have the potential to lead to practice closures and significant redundancies and unemployment.”
John Graby explained that some school projects in the past 18 months, for which expressions of interest and bids have been received, and in some instances interviews have been conducted and design teams chosen, have not proceeded. This leaves the architects and clients in limbo, at a time when work could proceed at a moderate pace, to the benefit of all involved.
“The issues here need to be addressed and are not difficult to overcome. It just needs the willingness of the Department of Education and Science to stop using stage approvals as a valve on cash flow, and to communicate a program with design team issues,” John Graby concluded.
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