Centre probe finds no conflict
A consultant’s move from a company that assessed tenders for a troubled Stoke community centre to a building firm days after it was named as preferred centre contractor was not a conflict of interest, an audit found.
The 2016 audit was spurred by one of the unsuccessful tenderers for the $7.1 million Greenmeadows project, which suggested the employee’s move may have been a conflict of interest.
The independent audit by Asset Management Strategic Advice and Mentoring (AMSAAM), released by the Nelson City Council this week, set out the time frame for the employee’s job switch.
The unnamed employee was a director for Onus Construction Management. Another Onus director helped to evaluate ‘‘nonprice attributes’’ of the tenders for the project in June 2016, a process that led to Auckland construction firm Watts & Hughes being identified as preferred contractor on June 27.
On June 23, the director at the centre of the conflict of interest claim responded to a job advertisement for ‘‘an undisclosed company’’. On June 30, he told the other Onus director he was retiring from the firm, and the next day he ‘‘discovers the advertisement he has responded to was placed by Watts & Hughes and he eventually accepts the position on August 5’’.
The Onus director who evaluated the tenders told the council on September 15 that his fellow director had gone to Watts & Hughes.
After one of the unsuccessful tenderers raised the potential conflict of interest, the tender was put on hold pending the audit.
The audit, carried out by David Fraser from AMSAAM, said it was not unusual in New Zealand, particularly in provincial areas, for those within the consulting and contracting industry to move between firms.
‘‘The moving of a staff member from a consulting firm involved in an evaluation process to a construction firm that was part of that evaluation does not automatically mean there has been a conflict of interest,’’ Fraser said.
‘‘The tender evaluation process has been carried out in keeping with the general tender evaluation requirements, and there is no indication of a conflict of interest,’’ the audit concluded. It said Watts & Hughes had the highest non-price attributes and the lowest tendered price.
Watts & Hughes has been in the spotlight over the quality of the Greenmeadows project, and has admitted there were ‘‘quality issues’’.
On Monday the council released the terms for an independent review of the centre’s construction. The reviewer will be able to make recommendations for any remedial work.
The reviewer will also work with the architect and the main contractor to help find improvements or solutions to any potential problems with ongoing work. They will assess the quality of the construction, which must be of a standard to last well for 20 to 30 years.