Council procurement policies impact on regional parks

Council procurement policies are in the spotlight as changes to Auckland’s security contracts raise concerns about consultation, ranger safety and local access to public contracts.

Warkworth’s Insite Security has provided security for seven Northern region parks for the past four years and owner Chris Martin is concerned that the changes will dismantle years of work and investment in an integrated system.

Auckland Council’s regional operations manager John O’Brien says changes to regional parks security were part of a wider procurement process rationalising security service contracts it acquired through amalgamation, simplifying administration and saving money in the process.

Council has opted for a single security alarm monitoring service and four area-based contracts providing "manned" services that meet all of its security requirements, including those of regional parks. It expects to transition to the new contractors at the beginning of April.

Mr O’Brien says the decision to re-tender is not a reflection on the performance of any of the previous service providers but took advantage of the fact that most existing security contracts were due to expire between July 2011 and June 2012.

However, Mr Martin believes that in the context of regional parks’ complex security needs the new approach will be more cumbersome, potentially more costly and less effective.

Current systems are closely interlinked including 24/7 live monitoring of the rangers’ radio system and predator proof gates, via alarm and CCTV, along with rapid response if necessary.

He says separating monitoring and response could cause delays with serious consequences, as rangers working in isolated settings without good mobile phone coverage can encounter threats of violence from park users, while if a predator proof gate doesn’t close predators can quickly decimate protected wildlife.

Local knowledge often enables Insite staff to resolve issues over the radio, or attend promptly, whereas operators at a central call centre won’t have the same understanding of local geography, he says.

Mr O’Brien says the new three-year contracts stipulate response times equal to, or less than, those included in the previous Councils’ contracts, as well as including performance measures that will be reported against, and reviewed monthly.

“Regional Parks’ staff will determine what services are needed within each of the parks to maintain an acceptable level of service and efforts were made to ensure existing local suppliers could continue to provide services as subcontractors.”

However, despite being asked to sub-contract for northern region manned duties, including regional parks by the new north area contractor, Icon Security, Mr Martin is critical of the procurement process.

Although he was informed of the whole of Auckland tender, he wasn’t informed of the revised plan offering contracts for four individual areas, despite having previously enquired about retaining services solely in his region.

He considers it symptomatic of a Council “blind spot” beyond the harbour bridge.

“They take a one-size-fits-all approach to everything and it’s having an effect on lots of businesses and families.”

In a letter to Council chief executive Doug McKay, Tracey Martin (no relation to Chris) says board members are still providing feedback on Council’s procurement policy and urges flexibility to recognise the distinctions between rural and urban needs.

Council’s desire for savings through aggregation of services meant Rodney was being "starved of employment opportunities” as predominately small local suppliers were forced out of the Council contract market, she says.

While opportunities for sub-contracting work were given to unsuccessful tenderers, smaller companies, that didn’t tender for the large-scale jobs, were therefore not informed and decisions about contacting them were left up to successful contractors.

“We are pushing for some weighting either via the tender process or via a dollar percentage mechanism to ensure local input is built into the procurement policy of Auckland Council,” she says.

She also reiterates concerns about ranger safety and questions the level of consultation about changes to security arrangements with park management, who she says had not been consulted as late as the end of November.

Another local Northern region parks contractor, Greg Jones of Warkworth’s Laser Plumbing, says no changes have been proposed to his 24-hour, on-call contract serving parks from Long Bay to Atiu Creek, which represents a 30 to 40 year relationship, initially established with his father’s company.

Pictured: Insite Security’s technical coordinator Aimee Whitaker monitors a regional park predator fence via CCTV while keeping in touch with rangers in the field via radio.

Published 1 February 2012