Paper Sample on Selecting Appropriate Contract Strategies for Municipal Construction Projects

Introduction

Municipal local authorities often undertake long term construction projects and have to adopt contract selection and procurement strategies that ensure they achieve value for money. The selection of the most appropriate strategy for procurement and contract issuing will require detailed knowledge of the competencies to be based on. Information required includes the policy requirements, available procurement strategies and contracts, key activities and processes that should be considered in project delivery, the level of complexity of the project, the risks involved, and key constraints on the project and its objectives (He, Huang and Yuan, 2016, p. 1980). Most governments will require contract selection and procurement strategies for building projects to achieve its value for money. The following are some of the contract related strategies the local municipal local authority can consider adopting during the appointment of contractors to deliver its works programs.

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My Advice on Procurement and Related Contract Strategies

The client who is a municipal authority should not only consider value for money as a way for price consideration. There are other factors worthy of consideration to ensuring performance specification and encourage maximum innovation. Adopting a procurement strategy that will be appropriate to the project's complex side entails setting an appropriate contact period, to ensure flexibility to secure scope changes in a reasonable cost and use of incentives to reward outstanding contractors (Oakland, J.S. and Marosszeky, M., 2017, p.84).. However, the authority should best come up with the procurement strategy after project plan evaluation and program formulation.

As a professional, I advise the local municipal authority to be aware of the objectives of the projects, the level of complexity of each project, and risk occurrence before adopting a procurement strategy. This will enable the municipal authority to meet the government's objectives of the grant. It will be effective to choose a procurement strategy that aligns with the key constraints and objectives of the project.

Documentation

The municipal authority should come up with clear documentation of the project. In this case, the municipal authority principal should work hand in hand with the highways term maintenance contractor and engage the contractor and other consultants to design the building project and come up with a full document describing all activities to be undertaken. It will be the duty of the contractor to do the construction in accordance with the documentation. As this is a government-granted project, the strategy should be largely adopted as it suits the degree of certainty required in regard to the project's requirements.

The municipal authority principal in charge of the project should then engage consultants to prepare a detailed brief of the project. Under this section, a definition of the functionality requirements and qualifications required should be well outlined. The contractor should be notified that it will be his or her duty to complete the design of the project, prepare construction documentation, and execute the construction work as per the agreed lump sum price. The client should choose contractors who are very skilled and competent in their profession in order to achieve the desired work.

The municipal authority should also have a strategy for early contractor involvement. Thus, the municipal authority principal has to ensure there is earlier engagement with the consultants in the preparation of the project brief. Managing contractors in another complex stage in the strategy formulation and the principle should formulate offers based on the revised brief (He, Huang and Yuan, 2016, p. 1980). It will be the duty of the managing contractor to start and complete the project as per the detailed brief of the project.

The municipal authority should seek a contractor based on the ability to deliver such a complex project. Contractors should be selected based on their contract administration policies, the contract form, and their project delivery methods. The nature and scope of a project will largely be dependent on the type of contract. There are steps that the form can use to get the best contract type. When the project is identified, its scope should be prepared, contract selected, tender documents prepared, tenders invited, tender meetings held, evaluation and revision done, and finally, placement of the contract.

The Results

The municipal body should also be aware of the results after outlining objectives to the contractor. Issues such as environmental protection, training of client's staff, transfer of technology, and involvement of a contractor in design, the involvement of the client in contract management, and choice of labor-incentive construction should be part of the contact strategy consideration. The contractors appointed for the project should have efficient project delivery methods. For instance, the process of supervision of park construction should be effective. Furthermore, the contract should be awarded to expertise committed to the project, with a reasonable size of the work package and with a resourceful organizational structure.

The municipal authority should also be aware of the right elements to consider in developing the contract document. The document should be contained a proper form or contract (Jelodar, Yiu and Wilkinson, 2016, p, 997). The terms of the contract must be written in that both parties will be very sure of their responsibilities and rights. The client should consider making the consent of the parties clear by ensuring that the agreement is free completely free from duress undue influence and misinterpretation. Furthermore, the document should have a lawful valuable consideration for both parties. This is often referred to as 'something for something.' The contract document should be a well-elaborated mutual agreement. This is one of the core characteristics of a valid contract. The details should be in the sense that the offer will be willingly accepted by the other part. With the availability of clear agreement terms, both parties must intend and wish their bargain to be lawfully enforced. The municipal authority should also ensure that the contract paper has a clear subject matter. A proper subject matter paper has a clear definition of the obligations and rights of each party. While formulating this subject, it should be noted that the entire purpose of the contract should not violate the law.

Why I Believe My Proposal is the Most Appropriate

I strongly believe that my proposal is worth the client's consideration as it has the best qualities of a required project proposal. In the proposal, the need for the proposed activity has been clearly established and supported with clear arguments. Part of the project requirements will be to install on-street paper and electronic bus ticket vending machines at eight busy locations the city Centre, the two city hospital, the railway station, and the university, the proposal has been designed to define the entire scope to achieve this.A project that is accepted during the procurement process has well-defined objectives as far as the project is concerned. The objectives of my proposal are outlined to match the client's requirements and desired outcomes. As a reasonable and experienced professional, my document proposal explains the schedules of activities for the project in detail. This has also included a sample portion of the complete project schedule.

During the first year of the project's phase, the client has scheduled to achieve the creation of 'park and ride' facilities on land owned by the authority in the north and east of the municipal area to reduce the numbers of passenger car movements into the city Centre. They have also outlined that these facilities should consist of a 2,000 spaces car park (with automated security barriers, CCTV and bus pick up and drop lanes). Such a project will call for consultations and collaboration form different stakeholders. It will be difficult to proceed with construction activity in the park without making a notification to the environmental authorities. Therefore, my proposal is structured in a way that interested groups and parties are included in the planning phase. Details on how committed each party in the project are also indicated. This includes cost-sharing stated both in the narrative of the budget and a letter of commitment in the appendix.

Budget

While formulating the budget, it will be consistent to ensure that it meets the need for the contract. The procurement panel will be keen to look at how the budget will be broken down (Jelodar, Yiu and Wilkinson, 2016, p, 997). In the proposal, I have clearly outlined how the money will be clearly used. There are also major matters that will arise. The proposal has included this in the guidelines. During the second year of the project, the municipal authority requires the contract to have completed the creation of bus priority measures at signal-controlled junctions along the route from each park and ride facilities into the city center. The client also requires that these works will involve minor alterations to the road layout at approximately 60 junctions and refurbishment and expansion of the two bus garages owned by the municipality done. All these will require human labor to achieve the project's objectives. During the construction works, workers will be guided by some set rules and guidelines. The proposal has put this into consideration by formulating an agreement to be signed by the project's staff.

As the project will involve minor road construction and environmental related activities, the proposal has considered all government guidelines of an effective and sustainable project (Eriksson, 2017, p. 18). The government also requires the staffs' rights and privileges to be respected. Thus, the proposal has followed all matters regarding the employees' civil rights and protection.The procuring panel will also prefer a bid that has outlined how a follow-up and directions will be administered during the project. The proposal has put bid administration into consideration. Furthermore, qualifications are another necessity considered by most panels for procurement biding exercises. In my advice, I have noted that all professional documents have been attached, and every professional requirement clearly communicated. A good contractor has a document that is clearly written following a clear and concise style. The client may not consider a poorly written proposal as it may not be well-read and understood.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the municipal will achieve its long-term construction projects through proper contract and procurement knowledge and strategies. A construction project should be guided by well-outlined strategies and ensure details are implemented right from the beginning of the project. The proposal submitted by the contractor should have a well-defined planning criterion. Objectives should be well defined, construction methods included, planning of resources done, cost estimations clarified, and durations for various activities included. A contract document should, therefore, be designed to ensure the work is done to achieve the required goals.