Procurement of Projects and Services –
The possibility of adopting the NEC3 family of contracts

Sustainable procurement for construction or engineering relies upon making value for money decisions over the life of the asset and not solely on capital costs. A value for money solution to meet user requirements relies upon the optimum combination of whole –life costs and quality.

Any procurement strategy should identify the best way of achieving the projects objectives, taking into account the likes of key objectives, constraints, funding, risk and asset ownership. It is the optimum balance of these factors that one strives for.

The procurement route is the means of achieving the procurement strategy. This will include the contract strategy that best meets the client’s needs. The contract strategy will determine the level of integration of design, construction and maintenance for a project. This should support the main project objectives in terms of the likes of risk allocation, incentivisation and delivery.

There are many procurement routes available including traditional, design and build, prime contracting, management contracts and private finance initiative/public-private partnership. The NEC3 family of contracts is designed to be flexible enough to work in most currently available procurement routes.

All parties involved in the project delivering process can be employed under one of the “family” of integrated NEC3 contract forms which allows the parties to benefit from back-to-back contractual arrangements

WHY NEC3?
NEC3 provides a wide range of support products and services which facilitate its implementation, covering consultancy, training, printed and electronic documents, licensing, conferences and seminars. The NEC3 is being used for several high profile infrastructure projects such as the 2012 Olympics and High Speed 1.
The NEC3 is a