ONE of Mildura’s top planning consultants has called for a “locals-first approach” in an overhaul of the council’s tendering process for projects.
Roy Costa, who has worked in town planning for three decades, claimed the local consultants had “long” been at a “disadvantage” under Mildura Rural City Council’s tendering system.
“The council, in their tender evaluation process, has the local weighting at just 15 per cent,” Mr Costa said.
“That is putting the local experts at a disadvantage.
“The local knowledge and local professionalism component should be between 30 and 50 per cent, because nothing beats local knowledge and expertise.”
He said the council should be looking to local expertise first for any project in the municipality.
“Council shouldn’t just put an advertisement in Sunraysia Daily and say that’s the extent of the local approach,” Mr Costa said.
“What they should be doing is directly approaching the locals – whether they are architects or builders – and say, ‘Here’s what we have and put your tenders in before we look at out-of-towners’.
“If they are not happy with what they get, then look to out-of-towners.”
Related: Majority of Mildura councillors back push to review tender process
Asked why the local town planners hadn’t vented their frustrations about the council’s tendering system before now, he said: “It’s simply because a lot of people didn’t want to rock the boat.
“But these same people have now had enough of being overlooked.
“This has been a problem for the last 20 years. Most of Mildura’s strategic planning work has been done by out-of-town consultants for far too long.”
He said there was a high level of expertise in Sunraysia to lead projects of any size.
“We know what we are doing. We know Mildura,” Mr Costa said.
“You have local engineers here who have designed all the drainage infrastructure and road networks throughout this community.
“They understand how Mildura grows and where all the infrastructure is.
“But you have the council employing consultants from out of town who don’t understand any of this.
“Therefore, when out-of-town consultants are awarded contracts, they have to go and investigate how Mildura works.
“But the Mildura professionals already know all this, which means the council could save tens of thousands of dollars.
“And that’s the heart of the argument for looking to locals first.”
