“In our brave new world of Local Government, it is essential to have many different partnerships,” said Chris Watson, President of the Institute of Municipal Engineering Australia – NSW Division.
Speaking at the Annual Conference, he said that this year’s theme ‘Winning Partnerships’ appropriately describes the Institute’s past year and its approach to the future.
He pointed to the example of the AUS-SPEC Project. Here IMEA has formed a joint venture with State Wide Roads to produce software covering a range of specifications and contract documentation for use by Councils throughout Australia.
The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) is playing an important role in the project by providing an interest free loan to assist in the development of these specifications. ALGA will also be represented on the management Board of the joint venture partnership.
In presenting IMEA with the cheque, Cr John Wearne, Senior Vice President ALGA, said that ALGA was pleased to support and endorse AUS-SPEC as an important initiative in the microeconomic reform of Local Government.
“Local Government needs to become more aggressive in standardising its procedures, particularly, its contract specifications,” said Don Sheffield National Executive Director, IMEA.
“With the National Competition Policy, it is vital we make things as simple as possible and have uniform approaches to our work.”
The AUS-SPEC series helps ensure technical and contractual consistency between Councils, yet provides for flexibility where necessary. AUS-SPEC is now available to Councils in an electronic format using MS Word. Councils are able to add, change or delete from the specification set in developing their own localised level of service for works they undertake.
“We were very pleased with the excellent attendance at all Conference sessions and how successful presenters were in emphasising and focusing on the theme of ‘winning partnerships’,” Chris Watson said.
In a further innovation, introduced this year, the GA Taylor Medal for the best Conference paper was judged and presented on the opening day. With 50 papers submitted, 30 were selected to be presented at the Conference. From these, eight were shortlisted for the GA Taylor Medal. Three finalists were selected to present their papers during the judging session at the Conference.
The 1997 winner was Chris Champion from Holroyd Council who spoke on ‘Seeking Excellence in the Provision of Services – the Holroyd Model’. Runners up were Beth Clements from the Department of Public Works and Mike Hanrahan from Bega Shire Council.
