Olympic PM bidders support ‘sensible' ODA tender scrapping

Bidders for the Olympic programme manager role have welcomed the scrapping of the contract they have been battling to win and vowed to tender for its replacement.

The Olympic Delivery Authority axed the tender for the programme manager role this week following the November appointment of David Higgins as chief executive.

Jonathan Goring, executive director at Capita Symonds, which is part of a consortium shortlisted for the now obsolete contract, said: "To be honest, I thinks it's a sensible thing to do. The ODA is effectively a new organisation with a new chief exec. He deserves time to think things through."

Capita has been bidding for the deal for the past six months alongside consortium partners Franklin + Andrews and KBR. Goring said the three would maintain the alliance and bid for the new contract.

The new tender will set out a bigger role for the programme manager, encompassing the Games, legacy, sustainability issues and Stratford City.

Goring said: "The role now is programme management and project management, so it involves actually managing the individual projects and the ODA will be a thinner client, relying on the programme manager to integrate with them. (Although the role is bigger) it's simpler now. The difficult bit was always going to be stakeholder and client management."

The role now involves individual projects and the ODA is a thinner client

Jonathan Goring, executive director, Capita Symonds

He added that the ODA would adopt "very much a client role. They will not fill programme management positions except where they have the skills and expertise".

The ODA said its procurement team was working on the new tender and aimed to put it in the OJEU in "a matter of weeks, if not days". It will adopt new European legislation on competitive dialogue procedure, which allows the client to enter into more detailed discussions with certain bidders at the pre-qualification stage.

Liz Crawshaw, ODA spokesperson, said the organisation would "encourage" the previously shortlisted consortia and companies to re-apply.

The other shortlisted bidders were Mace/Davis Langdon, Amec, Arup/Gardiner & Theobald, Lend Lease and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The ODA has also scrapped the tender for the velopark designer.