Plumbing business queries tender process
The Comfort Station toilet block in Warragul’s central business district has come under fire for its poor condition, despite Baw Baw Shire Council servicing the block each day.
The toilet block attracted several comments regarding its condition on ABC Gippsland’s Facebook page recently.
The toilet block, which is believed to have won an architectural award when it was built, was designed with dark tiles to combat graffiti, while the seat style was also part of the design to limit vandalism.
In a message to the Gazette’s Facebook page, local resident Amy Dalrymple said she believed the toilet block was in a terrible condition on a regular basis.
“Enough so that people leave the township, cut their local shopping short, to go home to the loo,” she said.
“Surely this can't be good for local businesses.”
The toilet block forms part of council’s routine maintenance schedule, and is serviced three times per day on weekdays and twice per day on weekends.
Baw Baw Shire Council acting director of community assets Vishal Gupta said council officers would undertake an inspection to see if there was a need for any urgent maintenance work.
“Outside of this there are no plans to upgrade the facility at this time,” he said.
Five plumbing contractors have been appointed to provide plumbing maintenance services for Baw Baw Shire’s council owned buildings.
But an Officer based company that also tendered for the contract and missed out, has questioned why council officers disqualified it from the tender process.
After advertising the tender for maintenance plumbing services, council agreed to award the contract to a panel of five plumbing contractors including Australian Facilities Plumbing, Brandy Creek Plumbing, Heenan Plumbing, O’Brien Enviro Plumbing and Ray Doyle Plumbing.
A tender from Accomplished Plumbing Services (APS) was deemed by officers as not meeting mandatory requirements and was not accepted.
A report to council said the work to be covered by the contract was minor maintenance and small projects up to $100,000.
Officers said six tenders were received but the tender from Accomplished Plumbing was disqualified “because the tenderer did not meet the mandatory requirement that it must offer a range of plumbing services, not just drainage.”
Amy Ridgway from APS used community question time to challenge council about its disqualification of APS and requested their tender be re-evaluated.
Ms Ridgway said the tender specification listed three mandatory requirements including confirmation of insurance policies held and level of cover; confirmation of satisfactory licenses and accreditation; and, occupational Health and safety management systems.
“There is no mention within the tender documents that two or more services must be selected for evaluation to occur of the submitted tender.
“May I ask that our tender be fully evaluated against the listed criteria; we believe that we would be successful given the criteria and the other tenders’ abilities and weighting.
Ms Ridgway asked if their submission could be “fairly and fully evaluated against the advertised conditions.”
Acting chief executive officer Matthew Cripps said officers indicated APS was disqualified because it did not meet a mandatory requirement that it must offer a range of plumbing services.
“Council acknowledged that incorrect terminology was used in reference to Accomplished Plumbing Services in the report.
“Accomplished Plumbing Services PL was unsuccessful because it didn’t offer a range of services which the tender request was seeking.
Mr Cripps said the recommendation to award the contract was measured utilising council’s tender evaluation matrix which employed an independent, consistent, considered and transparent approach in assessing contractors for each tender received.
“The terminology error noted in the officer report does not impact the evaluation outcome detailed in the recommendation,” he said.
Mr Cripps said all tenderers had the opportunity to seek further information or feedback in relation to tender submissions and the evaluation process by contacting councils procurement coordinator after council’s decision.
The council report said the appointment of these contractors to perform plumbing work on council properties will improve the quality of maintenance works and improve response times, hence improving the condition of council properties and service delivery.
All tenderers except Heenan Plumbing and Ray Doyle Plumbing have environmental management policies that aim to minimise risks to the environment when works are carried out, the report said.