THE PROBLEM
As a client who needs a contractor to carry out reactive maintenance and minor works, you might find you have a problem. You need to appoint a contractor but the “Traditional” procurement process (design, produce Bill of Quantities, go out to tender) doesn’t lend itself to maintenance and minor works because it’s not possible to predict what you’ll be asking the contractor to do. If you can’t describe the works, how can a contractor price it?
THE SOLUTION
There are a few solutions, but only one gives you to:
Contractor selected in a competitive tender
Cost control
Quality control – workmanship and service levels
High levels of control over quality of service such as response times
Predict future expenditure quickly and accurately
Have a fully auditable account for each repair or project
That option is a Schedule of Rates based Measured Term Contract or MTC. A Measured Term Contract is designed for use by employers who have a regular flow of maintenance, minor works and improvements projects that they would like to be carried out by a single contractor over a specified period of time. Measured Term Contracts are suitable for projects procured via the traditional or conventional method, using a measurement payment structure such as a Schedule of Rates. In fact, the NSR Schedules are specifically named in the JCT Measured Term Contract as the preferred solution.
A Schedule of Rates can be described as a hypothetical Bill of Quantities. It’s a list of all the tasks (and their prices) that the contractor might be asked to do instead of an actual Bill of Quantities which is a list of tasks and prices that the contractor will be asked to do.
Measured Term Contract simply means that the contract is for a set period of time (the Term) and the works are measured and valued against the pre agreed schedule of rates.
NSR – The Maintenance Procurement Solution
The NSR Schedules of Rates are available in several ‘disciplines’ and contain a large number of pre-priced tasks. For example, our three main schedules – Building, Mechanical and Electrical – have almost 24,000 tasks.
The prices in the Schedule don’t include contractor’s overheads & profit and Prelims so at tender stage, the contractor calculates their required percentage adjustment. It’s that percentage adjustment that allows you to evaluate the tenders to select the contractor who offers best value for money.
