Written by LetsBuild
Last updated October 19, 2023
I read “Pas 91” and swore. I was alone at the time so I swore long and loud!
“More bl**dy paperwork for us builders to fill in!”
Then I wondered what “PAS” stood for. “Publicly Available Specification”!
“Great! Now they want the whole world to know everything that should be kept commercially confidential!”
I didn’t do any research about “91”. I already knew that is just a pretty high prime number!
Anyway, having got my strop over and done with, I actually read about PAS 91 and discovered my strop had been premature and misplaced!
We all know what a bind, a pain and an expense it is to tender for work, don’t we?
Then someone came up with this idea that made it even more expensive and longer-winded. Initially it was for public sector contracts, but soon for all of them. Anyone wanting to submit a tender also had to go through a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ). This was to demonstrate that they had the resources, skills and experience to be able to do the job.
Always seemed silly to me because there was a time when we knew that anyway from their track record and reputation!
Anyway, turns out PAS 91 is fantastic! Register, do your PQQ once, get it on-line and that is it! No more need to come up with one for every tender you submit. No need for Clients to request them and get piles of paper back!
A time and money-saver for everyone!
A very rare outbreak of common sense! Get in on it fast!
I don’t actually know what the cost-saving will be. I only ever did one myself and then flatly refused to do any more. That one, however, I reckon cost well over £1,000 in labour costs. Win one tender in ten and that is £10,000 added to the contract price of every project won just covering overhead costs on PQQ’s that didn’t get anywhere!
What we need now is for someone to have another stroke of genius and come up with a way of tendering that saves the £10,000 that incurs for every prospective contractor! Perhaps for the Client-side people to come up with a draft that just requires figures popping in by any outfit wanting to tender?
That would save about £100,000 of wasted overhead costs being charged on every project!
Does that suggestion make me the next genius?
