Remit Item 4:
"The role of the council with regard to the quality assurance of the construction of the buildings, including the granting of completion certificates to allow the buildings to become operational, the management of risks to the council; and if standard practice regarding quality assurance provided adequate checks and balances for all parties to the contract."
• This section of the Report will consider the approach adopted in relation to the quality assurance of the design and construction of the PPP1 schools. However, before examining how these particular aspects were managed specifically in the case of the PPP1 project, it was considered useful to set out how the approach to quality assurance in the construction industry has changed over recent years with the advent of new procurement models.
• The final quality of a building is determined by many factors, including the focus given to design quality in the client brief and what weight is attached to this in the processes used for the assessment of bids. It is the responsibility of all informed clients to incorporate mechanisms that both clearly articulate the quality objectives for their projects and facilitate the proper assessment of bids before appointment to ensure that the stated quality objectives are being met. As will be read below, Council officers, in reviewing the PPP1 projects, came to the conclusion that insufficient attention had been paid to the issue of design quality. This would appear to have been an opportunity missed.
• Given the nature of the problems that gave rise to this Inquiry, this Report does not intend to focus on a detailed analysis of the overall design quality of the schools, but simply consider this briefly as part of the review of the approach of the Council to this stage of the project. The primary focus of this section of the Report will be in relation to the quality assurance of the construction processes used that ultimately failed to deliver the required standards of building construction.