Consultant stuff

[trowelhead]

As a member of the dark sith and being somewhat new to the dark side I have been tasked with the Procurement of a project and this has left me a little confused. Does Procurement entail aquiring the site from the owner for the project or is procurement the act of organising the tender for sub-contraction to a number of units. Any help from more wizned sith lords would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

[achingknees]

don't be shy - ask your line manager!

[Cautionary Tale]

Shouldn't that be the Emporar (after all, you do get to fail once before.....[xx(]).

But I second that approach (mine regularly gets a stream of questions).

Haec olim meminisse iuvabit

[1man1desk]

Speaking as a long-time Dark Lord, I would advise as follows:

Procurement essentially involves the following:

- identify the scope of work required
- write a Specification and Contract
- send it out to units to get tenders
- assess the tenders and recommend whom to appoint
- oversee the work during implementation to make sure it is done in accordance with the Spec

When writing the Spec/Contract, you need to be aware of different ways in which archaeological works can be priced, and choose/design a method that is appropriate to the type of work being done and will enable you to ensure that only work that actually gets done is paid for and that work only gets done if it is needed and authorised.

Concepts:

Scope - what kind of investigation (geophysical? trial trenching?) and how much (e.g. 5% sample?). Usually identified by reference to existing reports (your own?) and consultation/negotiation with the curator.

Specification - a technical document that sets out the archaeological requirements and methods to be applied

Contract - a legal agreement between two parties under which one of them, subject to a number of conditions, will provide goods or services to the other for a consideration (usually money). In most industries there are a choice of standard published contracts; for archaeology there is the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) Conditions of Contract for Archaeological Investigation. The Conditions of a contract are there to ensure fair play and fair risk sharing. SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE

Parties - the parties to a contract are usually the Employer and the Contractor. Often there is a middle-man (the 'engineer' or 'consultant') who is not a party, but manages the contract for the employer. You may find yourself in the role of Employer, Consultant or both.

Your role as a consultant can be awkward. You need to negotiate a scope of works with the curator that meets the archaeological needs (in the light of all the relevant guidelines etc), but at the same time doesn't compromise your client's interests by agreeing to work that goes beyond what they can reasonably be expected to pay for.

When you have agreed a scope with the curator and appointed a contractor, you need to oversee the works. Your job there is to ensure that the works are done in accordance with the spec. You have opposing tensions there - the contractor will often try to miss out bits of work or do them to a lower standard, so as to save money/increase profit; while some curators will push for extra work and higher standards than are in the spec that they agreed to.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[trowelhead]

Cheers Dude what a helpfull answer!

[1man1desk]

Trowelhead,

Look at the recent discussions on the 'Digger - voice for good?" thread. A lot of that is also about procurement.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[Sith]

Good answers 1man, however, I can't help agreeing with Barnesy that it is slightly worrying that this chap's line manager wasn't his first port of call. If not, why not?

D. Vader
Senior Consultant

Vader Maull & Palpatine
Archaeological Consultants

The ability to dig a site is insignificant next to the power of the Force

[Curator Kid]

Maybe Trowelhead still has some good in him, and fears his line manager. Remembering that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering. Trowelhead -I sense much fear in you...

[trowelhead]

OI Sith before you start getting all high and mighty and do the usual archaeologists im better than you bit that made me sick to the stomach when I was in the feild, I wrote the question asking for help with an issue I had at work, this forum is about helping your fellow archaeologist with issues and questions they have about the proffesion it is not a forum to talk negatively about an individual writing within seeking a helpful answer.. Mate if you aint got anything to add keep those fingers off the keyboard.

[drpeterwardle]

I have to say I find the question worrying. However I would suggest a different appraoch.

1. Does the company have a method statement for purchasing?
2. What is the client's policy on purchasing?
3. How big is the project? Decide what is neccessary in the circumstances. Then there are the following steps - half a dozen phone calls may achieve the desired result.

4. Get brief or discuss the scope of the work with the curator
5. Draw up list of suitable organisations and check if they wish to tender. Check their suitability to do the job.
6. Draw up a list of works and how peole are to tender for the job
7. Get quotes
8. Compare quotes so that costs are compared on a like with like basis. Rule out bids headed estimate or costings when a fixed price has been asked for.
9. Choose the contractor who is going to give the best value
10. Get method statememts and risk assessments
11. Discuss terms of contract
12. Appoint contractor
13. Check work has been undertaken
14. Agree invoice
15 Approve invoice.

My method statement can be found on Britarch.

Peter