Construction World March 2016

CONSTRUCTION WORLD

MARCH

2016

Hoffman, the progamme leader of

Quantity Surveying at the University of

Pretoria's Department of Construction

Economics, is currently leading a study by

ASAQS of the true cost of green building for

the Green Building Council of SA (GBCSA).

The study, which is well advanced, involves

comparative costing of around 55 Green Star SA

office buildings certified by the GBCSA between

2008 and 2014.

According to Hoffman, one of the greatest

challenges facing green building in South Africa

is fear of the unknown, particularly costing.

He says green building techniques are often

Quantity surveying is a key component of the construction supply

chain. Danie Hoffman, a professional member of the Association

of SA Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS), says all chain members have

to share commitment and combine forces to make sustainable

building more acceptable in South Africa.

QUANTITY SURVEYORS

“This has the potential of destroying

emerging as well as established contrac-

tors, and also leads to unnecessary

wastage of time and money with escalating

costs of building projects which South Africa's

reeling economy can ill afford at present,” Van

den Heever states.

He says all tenders, whether from the public

or private sector, should provide clear and

consistent project information to assist building

contractors in deciding whether to submit

tenders, and then to enable quantity surveyors

and project managers to exercise proper cost

control on the projects involved.

“Instead, members of ASAQS are increasingly

having to work with municipal tender docu-

ments that are unclear and ambiguous. This,

predictably, leads to inaccurate estimates, claims

and disputes on contracts, to name just a few

consequences.

“Proper tender documentation helps to

obtain competitive tenders that can be evaluated

objectively to select a suitable contractor, but

poor specification writing, disparities between

bills of quantities, and dismal drawings and

specifications are increasingly the norm in

tender packages drawn up by local governments

which, as repeatedly stated in the media, appear

to have too many inexperienced and unskilled

staff in key positions. Then, to exacerbate the

situation,there has also been so many reported

cases of vested interests and corruption in the

awarding of municipal tenders.”

Van den Heever says the problem of poor

tender documentation is not confined to

South Africa but a universal headache for the

building industry.”It makes it difficult for quan-

tity surveyors to exercise proper cost control

and manage a projecct, and also puts building

contractors and subcontractors at risk because

they often do not fully understand what will

be required of them when pitching to handle a

project that has been put out to tender.

“A study by the UK's University of Reading,

for example, showed that poor specification

writing, disparities between bill of quantities and

drawings and specifications, and poorly prepared

tender documents are common problems

associated with tender documents in the UK.

Problems associated with technical information

prepared by designers led to the appointment of

a UK Co-ordinating Committee for Project Infor-

mation (CCPI) which subsequently confirmed

that the major problems were quality of draw-

ings, poor specifications and bills of quantities, as

well as late and wrong information, insufficient

detail, impracticable designs, and requirements

that were unclear, provisional, unco-ordinated

and conflicting. UK contractors, in fact, identified

poor tender documents as the second highest

cause of inaccurate cost estimates.

“In the USA, incompleteness of tender docu-

ments, quality of design and unclear contract

documents were significant factors that led

to contractors' incorrect level of mark-up.

In Australia, contractors identified quality of

tender documentation as the third most signif-

icant factor influencing a contractor's decision

to bid for a job, while contractors in Singapore

found that of 40 factors influencing bid/no-bid

decisions, poor tender documents was the

eighth most important. In China, also, contrac-

tors reported that poor tender drawings was a

significant risk factor for contractors in the local

construction industry.”

Van den Heever says it is in the national

interest to ensure that South Africa does not

fall deeper into this mire and embarks on a

policy of not only stamping out corruption in

the awarding of tenders but also implemen-

ting measures, “mainly through the appoint-

ment of qualified and skilled personel to

compile tender documents” to ensure that invi-

tations to tender are clear, so that contractors

and quantity surveyors can work with proper

documentation without having to resort to

assumptions or guesswork.

WIDESPREAD CONSEQUENCES

Poorly prepared tender documentation has become a major

problem in the South African construction industry with tenders

put out by municipalities, in particular, increasingly dropping in

standard, warns Bert van der Heever, president of the Association

of SA Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS).

Bert van der Heever, president of the Asso-

ciation of SA Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS).

ALLAYING GREEN BUILDING FEARS

Danie Hoffman, ASAQS professional mem-

ber: “One of the greatest challenges facing

green building in South Africa is fear of the

unknown, particularly costing,” he believes.

perceived as expensive and challenging to

execute, but this need not be the case, partic-

ularly when full life-cycle costing of building is

added to the equation.

“Life-cycle costing covers all the financial

implications of building: fromconcept to end-of-

life, and incorporates the costs of construction,

materials, design, engineering, water and elec-

tricity tariffs, heating and cooling, repair costs,

and eventual disposal cost, or residual value.

Quantity surveyors, as cost consultants, will

play an increasingly important role to inform

decisionmakers on green building. However, the

responsibility for cost-effective green building

solutions will have to be shared between quan-

tity surveyors and the entire supply chain: devel-

opers, designers, contractors, and end-users.

“Quantity surveyors are essential links in the

supply chain as they are involved from initial

design stage to the conclusion of construction

processes, and can advise on the specification

of construction materials, prepare and control

budgets as well expenditure,” Hoffman explains.

He believes educational institutions also have

an important role to play to promote the cause

of sustainable construction by informing the

entire industry of the availability of sustainable

materials and technologies, and the benefits of

best practice.