The Queenstown Lakes District Council's strategy of having preferred contractors - which had been a major issue for Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden - has been changed.
As a councillor in 2008, Ms van Uden was a outspoken critic of the council's procurement strategy, saying the council needed to prove to ratepayers it was delivering "good value".
The council's new procurement strategy for transport, water and solid waste infrastructure services was yesterday adopted by the infrastructure services committee.
Consultant panels will continue to be used for both transport and water capital design work projects, with up to 80% of the work by value negotiated on a "value-for-money" basis, and a minimum of 20% competitively tendered.
At the end of existing capital construction works, all contracts will be established through open tender on a lowest-cost basis, while solid waste will be managed by the QLDC.
Speaking at the public forum at yesterday's meeting, Southland and Otago contractor The Roading Company's managing director, Dave Wilson, said lowest-cost tendering was not the best option.
"[With one-off contractors], you can get somebody coming in, doing poor-quality work and then leaving without fixing it."
The Roading Company was a member of the QLDC's contracting panel, and Mr Wilson favoured continuing the model.
The company had been offered a $5 million contract in Christchurch, to run over the next three years, and the offer was looking "very attractive", he said.
QLDC asset management engineer Andrew Edgar said losing contractors to Christchurch by switching to lowest-cost procurement was a "risk we have got to take".
The strategy will guide the procurement of council infrastructure contracts for around $100 million of work over the next three years.
