FIFTEEN FIRMS of architects selected 18 months ago to design schemes for the plan to regenerate Limerick are being told that a change in the ground rules means they will have to compete for every project.
“It appears that everything will have to be re-tendered, and that could take months,” said John Graby, director of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.
“Design teams who prepared designs and made submissions could have to start all over again.”
He said the change in procurenent at this late stage – apparently decreed by the Department of Finance – represented a “massive waste” of resources. “If the Government is serious about regenerating Limerick, it has to find a way to take control of this.”
Mr Graby said he would be raising the issue at a meeting next week of the consultative committee on the construction industry, which is chaired by the Department of Finance, and seeking assurances that the Limerick regeneration project would proceed as planned.
The process of procuring architectural services was initiated by the Limerick Regeneration scheme in April 2008, when it advertised for “pre-qualification” submissions. A shortlist was drawn up in June of that year and a final selection of 15 firms made in February 2009.
One of the architects whose firms were selected for the framework plan said: “This has been trundling on for more than two years and, having finally got the Government on board, it now appears they will not be able to use the framework they put in place.”
The firms selected were Bucholz McEvoy, OMP, PKA, Seán Harrington, Traynor O’Toole, Carr Cotter Naessens, Donnelly Turpin, DTA, Elliott Maguire Landers, Healy and Partners, McGarry Ní Éanaigh, Downey McConville, Murray Ó Laoire and Newenham Mulligan.
“Our understanding was that it would go forward and that at least a number of projects would proceed, having been cleared by the Government,” one of them said, “but nothing major has been commissioned since then, apart from a few small feasibility studies.”
Brendan Kenny, chief executive of Limerick Regeneration, said framework agreements were “no longer flavour of the month these days” and the view now being taken by the department was that it would be “better to open it up to more competition”. Although Limerick Regeneration had not yet been “directed” to abandon the February 2009 framework agreement, Mr Kenny said a lot of things had changed since then. Some of the firms on the panel were “in a different situation” – including one that went into liquidation.
Next week, Limerick Regeneration would be advertising tenders for architects and engineers for a small project of 30 units for senior citizens in Southill “and the firms on the list can compete for that as well”, he said, adding: “We’re anxious to move on.”
He would also be seeking clarification from the Departments of Finance and the Environment “on whether we can use” the framework agreement in light of the changed circumstances. Mr Kenny denied that the work done by architects on the list was wasted.