Resources

Purpose

This note outlines a minor change to the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency manual SM030 Professional Services Contract Proforma Manual, amendment 9 October 2019.  The change involves removal of references that are no longer relevant.  The change outlined in this note shall be implemented from the date of publication.

Change to SM030

This change removes remaining erroneous references to ‘Engineer to the Contract’ that were still in the text of the professional services contract proformas. Specifically, these references were found in the standard form contract in section 6.2.1 (General) and in the Relevant Skills Weighting section. This editorial change is made to align with a previous decision to remove Engineer to the Contract from the Management, Surveillance and Quality Assurance (MSQA) specification, based on discussions and in agreement with ACENZ.

Communication plan

As this change is internally focused, the communication will be carried out via this note and information provided on OnRamp (Waka Kotahi intranet).  The State Highway Professional Services Contract Proforma Manual, amended to reflect the change outlined above is available on OnRamp and a PDF version for reference can be found on the Waka Kotahi website for download.

Also, in terms of communicating changes, the intention is to set up a mailing list for all of the Procurement Manuals, particularly focused on external partners and approved organisations, to notify updates to the documents.  Customers would sign up to receive a brief message when something has changed. This would, where relevant, include a link to a notice or say that a notice would be released to explain the changes in a little more detail, so that interested parties could follow up the changes.

Implementation

This change to the SM030 Manual shall be implemented immediately for all future contracts and users can do this by accessing the most up to date document on OnRamp(external link) for internal users or on the Waka Kotahi website(external link).

There is no change for existing highway professional services contracts, but users of the SM030 manual are reminded that all future contracts need to have a client appointed independent engineer, ie independent of the successful tenderer who developed the design.

Effectiveness review

It is important to check that this this has been delivered effectively and the desired outcome achieved.  A review of the effectiveness of the changes will be undertaken by sampling the professional services contract used in road construction and maintenance projects over the next year.  Should the advice not be being heeded, a larger sample will be taken to establish the problem size and a further communication exercise will be undertaken. 

Publication details

Author: Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Document: SM030 Professional Services Contract Proforma Manual
Published: October 2019
Version: Amendment 9
Found at: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/state-highway-professional-services-contract-proforma-manual/ 

Further information

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact the Procurement team at procurement@nzta.govt.nz

[signed]

David Darwin - Chair, Ratification Group

Vanessa Browne - Delegated Approver