Contract and Procurement Management

Contract and Procurement Management 1
CONTRACT AND PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT
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Contract and Procurement Management 2
Contract and Procurement management
Background
Due to the expected increase in student admissions to the various campuses of the
Central Queensland University, the university plans to expand its infrastructure capacity
especially in the Melbourne campus to meet the increased requirements of the students. The
management has further identified and purchased a piece of land located in Melbourne, where
it intends to construct a unique campus with elements such as a main lecture building which
will accommodate 300 students, computer and engineering laboratories, a motel with 50
rooms for accommodating staff and visitors as well as a conference hall with state of the art
facilities and with a holding capacity of 250 people. The project elements are projected to be
constructed concurrently within a specific time frame so that by the commencement of the
January 2020 academic year, the new campus should be ready for occupation and are
expected to be cost effective and of high quality. Since the university lacks the capacity for
overseeing a project of such magnitude, it has contracted PPMP20011 Company, which is a
highly experienced consultancy firm to undertake the project implementation.
PPMP20011 Company Profile
Introduction
The company was established in 1995 and registered as a construction consultancy
limited liability company (LLC) in Australia. PPMP20011 has built its reputation as a leading
provider of civil and construction consultancy services as well as manages turnkey solutions
for both government and big corporate organizations. Our reputation is based on our promise
to deliver cost effective, quality service and timely. The company has highly skilled staff in
all areas of civil construction and is committed to provision of innovative and technology
based construction solutions.

Contract and Procurement Management 3
Our partnerships with both clients and other service providers enable us to achieve
high levels of customer satisfaction through meeting their enabling them to meet their
objectives. Furthermore, we employ unique and flexible project management systems which
facilitate positive outcomes regardless of the scope of the project. Our core services include
construction management, project building like hospitals, schools, commercial, residential
and industrial projects, client representation in estimation, scheduling, quality assurance, cost
control and procurement. Most of our clients include corporate contractors, financial
institutions, construction consultants, facilities managers and investors and they prefer to
work with us because of our expertise in managing budgets, risk, performance, scheduling,
quality and integrated risk management.
The Central Queensland University Project
Construction Projects generally involve interrelated activities determined by the
elements of budget, specific scope and a work schedule in order for strategic goals to be
realized. Managing a project of the CQU’s scale require planned and controlled execution
through professional teams (Shadan, 2012 p.3). When the customer is not capable to commit
individual time and resources it is advisable to enter a contact with a professional consultant
for the smooth delivery of the project. Construction project management entails direction and
supervision of a project from its developmental stages to its completion and aims to ensure
client satisfaction in terms of functionality and budget. Clients seek services in construction
project management for the technical expertise and parameters such as budget and execution.
Characteristics of a Project
A project such as the one anticipated by the university is characterized by its scope,
budget and schedule ( Wilson, 2015 p.21). The CQU has allocated a specific amount of
money to be used for the construction of the four elements, namely the main lecture building,

Contract and Procurement Management 4
computer and engineering laboratories, a motel and a conference hall and within a specified
time frame, precisely January 2020. The lifecycle of contract management involves a process
of efficient management of the contract to maximize the performance and minimize risk. The
project schedule involves the plan, do, check process which defines the time cycle that the
project will take from the beginning to the end and includes project initiation, planning,
design, construction, commissioning and handover. Scheduling also entails a breakdown of
work into manageable activities that aim at enabling the scope of every deliverable
achievable. Unlike schedules, the scope is determined by the specific requirements of each
element. For instance the bills of quantities (BQ) for an element such as the motel will be
very different from the estimates for the conference hall. The operational needs, level of
service and regulatory requirements must be considered. The specifications for the
engineering laboratory must be subjected to authorization and adherence to regulatory
standards unlike some other elements like the lecture building. The scope is prone to change
with the availability of new information throughout the project life cycle but refinement of
the scope is acceptable during the course of the project implementation, as opposed to slope
creep, which essentially changes the trajectory of the project through variation of BQs and
design modification hence alteration of the quality of deliverables.
Budgeting involves allocation of financial resources for a particular project. Funds are
always limited and a budget defines the funding requirements using the estimations at the
start of the project’s first phase and keeps refining with the definition of the scope. It must be
informed by the analysis of the project design and through the life cycle of the project and
often managers may want to draw the project budgets early in the life cycle of the project but
this may occasion significant variations in the funding. Therefore budgeting personnel ought
to factor in all aspects after all preliminary studies are completed.
The Lifecycle of the CQU Project