I have been following the letters to the editor recently. City Partners seems to be this month's flavour. Sadly the City Partners scheme is worse for ratepayers than they realise or could be aware of.
Perhaps firstly it is best to look at the Councils tendering process, then factor in the benefits City Partners could get from this. The tendering process has three options: -
1 In-house approval – this is where there is in fact no public tender and a Council Staff member just hands out contract(s) to whoever according to a preferred list. This is normally for a contract of no more than $150,000 of value, but that is easily circumvented by breaking it up into several contracts (I've had discussions with Council staff and my legal representative but to no avail).
2 Lowest conforming – being the lowest price with all the appropriate credentials wins the tender. But this can be 'adjusted” depending on who evaluates and what is meant by 'conforming”, their understanding of your qualifications or background and what boxes are ticked by Council Staff.
3 Weighted attributes – the contract requirements are split into percentages where the price only carries a weight of around 30% maybe more. The Council Staff evaluators then decide the outcome. The best example of this was where the Professional Services Contract for the design and maintenance of the city roads was awarded to the highest tender when other suitable qualified and experienced consultants came in at least 40% or lower. Council staff recommended the highest bidder (City Partner), as reported to date. The three year contract has just been renewed for another year (likely having been discussed at the Tauranga Golf Course) by the former CEO to the same City Partner and no public tender occurred.
There are many ways for Council Staff to decide who will be the successful tender on any given day, at the end of the day the 'Crosby Camp” relentlessly approve whatever Council Staff recommend because they think that they 'know what they are doing” sadly ratepayer end up paying and paying more and more rates.
Hayden Evens, Welcome Bay.