Demystifying Contract Safety Requirements

Tender contracts can be defined as ‘An unconditional offer of a party to a contract to perform their part of the bargain’. These have always been popular by use for government, large firms, project builders and specialist contractors as they have a number of benefits, such as:

• Giving the tendering organisation transparency of contract award;
• Allowing due diligence to be completed in an expedited timeframe;
• Allowing key stakeholder review;
• Access to the market as a whole; and
• Ensuring market competitive pricing.

From the perspective of the contractor, this can result in many nights lost sleep trying to pull together all the required paperwork. Our consultants believe the keys to successfully undertaking a tender submission are as follows:

• Carefully review the submission guidelines and ensure you have plenty of time to apply;
• Ensure you have the ability to complete the job and can provide references of your work;
• Make time to work through the tender;
• Work with someone who has applied for tenders before;
• Organise your documentation in one place, photocopy or scan everything to your computer;
• Develop a list or spreadsheet, work through each section and make a list of what you need to submit to meet conditions;
• Work through, section by section, naming every document (I like to make a register of which attachments match each section) as you go; and
• Hand in your document in the correct format, councils are often amazed how many documents are ineligible because they are not in their requested format.

Learning to develop tenders can be tricky. Our consultants regularly mentor a number of companies in all areas of tender and contract preparation. This can include many of the following:

1. Compliance documentation gathering (i.e. Insurances, Certificates);
2. Site Traffic and Emergency Management Plans;
3. Site Safety Planning;
4. Safe Work Method Statements;
5. Plant and equipment risk assessments;
6. Employee Record Management;
7. Project Timeframe Development ;
8. Quality Schedule Planning;
9. Safety and Environmental Compliance Planning; and
10. Sub-Contractor Management Systems.

If you are applying for a tender and need some assistance in the areas of Safety, Quality, Environmental, Traffic, Project Planning or just keeping a everything together. Give us a call on 1300 123 647 or email: safety@safetyzone.net.au to discuss how our Certified OHS Professionals can help.