The company yesterday said it had made about 12 staff redundant after losing its contract and claimed it had been unfairly maligned by the council over its performance cleaning the city's mud-tanks before the flood.
Council general manager infrastructure and networks Ruth Stokes said the council's previous experience with Fulton Hogan was taken into account when awarding the new $45 million road maintenance contract, which starts today, to Downer, the only other company to put in a tender.
The new contract marked a major shift in the way work was reported and assessed and the aim was for the council and public to be able to go online within the next year to access detailed information measuring performance, Mrs Stokes said.
This included being able to view what work was planned and where and access real-time reports of work as it was being carried out.
The new regime also gave the contractor more detailed expectations of performance and the results of staff oversight would now be independently audited.
The focus on performance comes after Mrs Stokes previously apologised on behalf of staff for a lack of oversight of road maintenance contracts, including mud-tank cleaning, and promised improvement.
Fulton Hogan regional manager Grant Sime said the company was disappointed to have lost the contract, adding it had been unfairly maligned by the council over its performance maintaining the city's mud-tanks, which was part of its overall contract.
"We were meeting the council's contractual expectations and meeting contractual performance measures,'' Mr Sime said.
Fulton Hogan had made about 12 staff redundant as a result of losing the contract, but was working with staff to find other employment for them.
It was expected some of those staff would pick up work with Downer.
Mrs Stokes confirmed the council was still in discussions with Fulton Hogan over its performance maintaining mud-tanks, but declined to respond when asked whether it was seeking money from the company.
"We are unable to comment as we go through this process for legal reasons,'' Mrs Stokes said.
The new three-year contract encompassed work previously covered by three contracts, including the maintenance of Dunedin's urban and rural road network, previously covered by Fulton Hogan.
It also included the maintenance of all hard surfacing in the city's parks and recreation areas, previously part of the parks maintenance contract, and signs and markings work, which was previously a separate $2.1 million contract carried out by Downer.
The work in the contract included resealing of roads and footpaths, cleaning mud-tanks, grading gravel roads, street cleaning and responding when weather, such as ice and snow, posed problems for the city's road network.
The price of each tender was given a factor of 40% when deciding on the winning bid.
Non-price attributes, including relevant experience and track record, were given a factor of 60%.
Downer lower South Island area manager Anthony van de Water said in a statement the company was looking forward to delivering exceptional service to Dunedin and its residents.
"Downer has a long history working with Dunedin City Council and we are delighted to be managing the new maintenance contract,'' Mr van de Water said.
