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Your correct in that BVP assumes vendors know more than the buyer about how to deliver the solution and that it can simplify proposals but the buyer still needs to be able to define the problem, the constraints of the project, in this case, regulatory and safety, and the outcomes for the vendor to be able to propose those outcomes.
Another tool in the procurement tool box.What you’re describing highlights two things that often make or break complex procurements. First, bringing actual end users into the picture isn’t just a “nice to have” but it directly improves requirement quality and second the front-end investment in RFI or RFQ’s can act to clarify what you need and screen the market to simply your job in the end.
We have also not taken this approach and regretted the result in a complex RFP.
In our Regional District this would involve a willingness to shift from having control over the scope and lowest bid to having shared accountability and clear outcomes, but it would work for several aspects of our organization.
Three that primarily come to mind are Parks Maintenance, Solid Waste and Recycling and Waterworks. In several of our contracts we are providing the tasks but not necessarily the outcomes and this leads to more staff time put towards monitoring those tasks being met while vendors only incentive is to complete the task and not necessarily go beyond.
The full report from the University of Tennessee provides much more insight into the benefits of this model of procurement. https://www.vestedway.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Unpacking-Vested-Outsourcing.pdf
While there were numerous interesting aspects of this project from building the test site, the broad and many privilege clauses and one-on-one vendor meetings, for me having dealt with volunteer fire departments my whole local government career and the challenges they face with dispatch, the most interesting aspect of the process was the focus on user involvement early in the process. Projects like this may in the past have involved IT and Procurement deciding what would be the best way to move forward but they brought in the end users of police, fire and other user groups who are the most familiar with these systems and what works and doesn’t work with them. Forming the Working Group that met through the entire planning and procurement process would have provided invaluable expertise and would encourage the acceptance of the new system once fully implemented.
With a project of this magnitude and complexity you need to relinquish control of the subject matter expertise and take the step-by-step process rather than hit the ground running with an RFP and hope you have it right as the consequences are too important.
You are correct in that we are seeing results with the EPR program here in BC particularly with things like packaging and paper, but we need to get away from contracts that award volume as they undermine some of these programs.
As everyone has commented, the contracts have to be designed with clear baselines, transparent data, and enforceable system of measurement, or vendors won’t be able to meet the specific goals or deliver real improvements.
You do a great job acknowledging both the ethical strengths and the practical limitations of Fair Trade, especially from a procurement perspective. The policies translate into real world behavior when you highlight how we need to move ethical sourcing from theory into everyday practice.
I think we can push further the idea of ‘trade-offs’ with higher costs and limited product range if the possibility of more Fair-Trade Towns increases the demand for products and thus increasing more producers. Unfortunately, with the way materials, wages, construction, etc. costs are rising in local government settings this may be a hard sell no matter what ethic or social impact it has.
Thanks for this information. Found the different funds and bonds to be especially interesting.
Shouldn’t be a novel concept that the taxpayer ‘Pay for Success’ but when the focus becomes on just getting the job done we lose sight on how to do the job better. Even if we are unable to shift over to a Commissioning model we can improve the outcome metrics by evolving our Rfx documents to ensure we are attracting the most qualified contractors.
The idea of introducing outcome-based commissioning in economic development programs, particularly in areas like business start-ups, would provide much needed support. Being in a small town it’s disheartening to see so many small businesses fail and seeing them have meaningful support and incentives can only improve the prosperity of your area. Would be interesting to see what model could be created that would strike a balance between ensuring the success of the new business and risk to the contractor.
I agree with the financial cost of being a Fair Trade Town, in our area we see a huge influx in population for part of the year, as we are a destination area, that may support the Fair Trade movement but I’m sure how the year-round population would accept what has already been the increasing costs as you mentioned. With such a varied population base it would be interesting to know what interest exists in the movement since there are others in our area and Province that are Fair Trade Towns.
You make a great case for ‘short term pain, for long term gain’ that while there are financial and political cost upfront the ethical impact to communities will outweigh that. Your personal experience in Peru gives further weight to your argument!
While we haven’t ventured into the world of Outcome based Commissioning, an area of interest that I would like to know what the benefits would be is Waste Management and Recycling as that is one of the largest budget items but seems to clearly fit within the outcome-based model.
While traditionally contracts are done on a per haul/tonne and management has been based on a monthly fee and tonnage received rate it would be interesting to see what service providers would deliver given clear outcomes for reducing refuse waste and increasing recycling while potentially providing some new incentives within the community that just aren’t focused on given the lack of capacity with local governments but by changing the model of our procurement we can achieve costs savings and improve our services.
The ultimate goal of Fair Trade is immeasurable in what it achieves with higher income for producers and improved labour standards as just a start but translating the social and economic benefits to our local government organization can be a harder sell.
As a procurement professional our job is to obtain ‘best value’ for our organization so selling the idea of Fair Trade when it will involve potential increased costs and reduced competition may involve some convincing regardless of the economic and social benefits. With the increase in budget constraints, it will cause a shift in thinking from buying what is the lowest to buying what is the most responsible and that will involve not just the organization to be on board but also your ultimate customer, which is the tax base.
I’m encouraged to see that two of the four larger cities in my Regional District are Fair Trade Towns, which may assist in starting the internal conversation about shifting the procurement practices build a better culture of sustainability and responsibility.
Good Morning,
I am Dona and I work as the Procurement Coordinator at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District in beautiful British Columbia.
I am one of two individuals in the Procurement Department and I deal with the whole procurement process in addition to other internal agreements such as leases while my co-worker deals with grants and contribution agreements. Thankfully we have an external organization that is posting the Rfx’s on our behalf as we currently lack the capacity for that part of the process as we recently underwent a restructure of the organization.
Have been is this current position less than two years so trying to develop skills as quickly as possible with the complex nature of public procurement.
Look forward to working with you all.
Dona
