OGCA urges members not to accept third-party verification prequalification requirements CaDCR staff writer The Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) has issued a letter urg- ing its members not to accept contract pre-qualification conditions requiring the use of third-party verification companies. “We do not support the requirement being imposed by owners that bidders be pre-qualified on the basis of membership in, or agreement with, these third party companies,” OGCA president Clive Thurston wrote in an Oct. 31 memo to members and stakeholders. “This new requirement on the industry does not, in our opinion, provide added value proportionate to its costs. Moreover, we believe that Ontario's culture of safety”, of “internal responsibility” and focus on due diligence best promotes the conduct we expect from everyone involved in the construction industry.” In the letter to members, Thurston says that the association supports “a strong auditing system for companies and their safety programs.” “That is why, we, the IHSA and others invest in and promote training and ed- ucational programs such as CoR, that are not just classroom-based but actually reach out to sites,” Thurston wrote. “our on-site audit and verification system s are actually implemented in the field. CoR accreditation, which is a nationally recognized standard, confirms programs and policies are in place and that they are fully implemented. The IHSA accredits that firms have achieved a high level of performance and continue to perform. Infrastructure Ontario, TTC, and Metrolinx, among many others, use COR to pre-qualify their construction pro- curement.” Thurston said the third-party services, on the other hand, do not provide “added value to procurement, construction or health and safety as the services they provide are very limited.” “These companies generally confirm that the contractor has submitted doc- umentation of policies and processes that have been put into place, but not that the contractor has achieved a high standard of health and safety perform- ance or that the written processes and procedures have been implemented.” Continued from the next page nies that are willing to pay the astro- nomical fees they charge to main- tain this service. To that end, the few large companies that have the resources to hire ISN to manage their prequalification services force companies to maintain the endless requirements of ISN in addition to other verification processes used by other companies. We are held hostage, unable to obtain work with this client unless we submit to the endless requests and read the innumerable pointless emails we receive from ISN, but have no idea what impact this actu- ally has with the client. It is possible that for larger companies, with sig- nificantly greater work packages with the client, may see a greater benefit in using the ISN service. For small companies such as ours, however, the ROI is becoming less and less favorable. The only entity that seems to be benefitting is ISN. Although somewhat lengthy, I trust that this gives you an overview of our experience with ISN. Respectfully, Gayle Suderman Director, human resources and safety The Chant Group of Companies, Aurora, Ontario www.threadsoflife.ca 8 – Fall 2014 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report