Overcoming challenges of early contractor involvement in local government projects

Traditional procurement methods are prone to developing adversarial relationships. Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) is a relationship-based procurement model that allows the client, the designer, and the contractor to work collaboratively, which results in improved performance. Previous ECI research has focused on its implementation in private projects and public projects managed by the Federal and State Governments. This research investigates the implementation of ECI in Local Government projects in Sydney, Australia. Interviews revealed that the main challenges are probity, developing principle project requirements document, running ECI workshops, changing the attitudes of project participants, and the time-consuming nature of ECI process. When these challenges are overcome, Local Government projects can reap the benefits of ECI, such as collaborative work relationships, better constructability, innovation, cost certainty, improved risk management, and better value for money. It is concluded that ECI is a suitable procurement model to improve project performance in the Local Government context.