Good morning everyone

I had a small problem which is happened to me three times.

I am working in a construction company .After we sending our project quality plan to the consultant , the consultant replies to us asking for the procedures, our internal quality procedures ( control of documents , records, procurement, HRD, internal audit, and also the technical procedure like procedure for concrete) even our HSE procedures they are asking for.

We are not ISO 9001 certified till now. In the quality plan I mentioned a ref. to all these procedures.

My opinion that the consultant are not supposed to see these procedures because it is something internally and describes the way we are going to implement the work and it is only belongs to us. Also in the contract documents there is nothing mentioned that we have to submit our internal procedures to them.
Also if they wanna be confident of the way how we are doing our jobs, they are allowed to come and audit us. Also we submitted the work method statement to them as per the contract requirements.

The project Manager suggests that we can submit the procedures to them without any clue just to get rid of headc.

I wanna know your opinion.

thanks alot

Regards

Ahmed

Hmm, if you had been in the contract management side, you will know that the Consultants through the Client can ask for confidential financial and banking information during the pre-qualification and/or negotiation stage. What else can they not asked? You can object to anything or choose not to comply and opt out of the bidding process - these are business decisions.

The bottom line, in my experience over here is that many construction companies had 'weak' QMS that does not give confidence to the supervising project team. Given the choice, they would not like to do the additional work of vetting through QMS of (potential) contractors.

Hmm, if you had been in the contract management side, you will know that the Consultants through the Client can ask for confidential financial and banking information during the pre-qualification and/or negotiation stage. What else can they not asked? You can object to anything or choose not to comply and opt out of the bidding process - these are business decisions.

The bottom line, in my experience over here is that many construction companies had 'weak' QMS that does not give confidence to the supervising project team. Given the choice, they would not like to do the additional work of vetting through QMS of (potential) contractors.
I think you should give this procedure to consultant,because this is not secret.I think it is common procedure.

I think you should give this procedure to consultant,because this is not secret.I think it is common procedure.

Yes and that is where the problem is.

If they are asking for procedures that don't describe anything "confidential" then I wouldn't be concerned about providing them copies. If however they are asking for procedures that contain information that you don't want to disclose (eg, you have developed a whole new process for making concrete), then you could politely decline saying that they hold commercial information. Or perhaps, get them to sign a Confidentiality Agreement. It really comes down to what is the risk of providing them.

By way of example, we quite often are asked for copies of procedures during the bidding process and we supply the prospective client our complete QMS on a CD (as a software development company, the processes are pretty standard, the real core is the knowledge/skills of our staff).

Dave

Good morning everyone

I had a small problem which is happened to me three times.

I am working in a construction company .After we sending our project quality plan to the consultant , the consultant replies to us asking for the procedures, our internal quality procedures ( control of documents , records, procurement, HRD, internal audit, and also the technical procedure like procedure for concrete) even our HSE procedures they are asking for.

We are not ISO 9001 certified till now. In the quality plan I mentioned a ref. to all these procedures.

My opinion that the consultant are not supposed to see these procedures because it is something internally and describes the way we are going to implement the work and it is only belongs to us. Also in the contract documents there is nothing mentioned that we have to submit our internal procedures to them.
Also if they wanna be confident of the way how we are doing our jobs, they are allowed to come and audit us. Also we submitted the work method statement to them as per the contract requirements.

The project Manager suggests that we can submit the procedures to them without any clue just to get rid of headc.

I wanna know your opinion.

thanks alot

Regards

Ahmed

Dear Ahmed,

Your project consultant can be very well treated as your employee as he is representing your organization and your top managment has employed him / her certainly to add more value. I fully agree with the other posters that your internal processes must be shared with him unless those are having sensitive information.

I just want to add at this point that please bind him / her with a non disclosure agreement, and explain to him the importance of keeping the informations confidential.

Regards,

Arin

This is a consultant that is helping you acheive certification? Then by all means, share your information.

Quit beating around the bush everyone...

Hey!

Are they your procedures?

Is there any legitimate reason (security, confidentiality, or whatever) why you shouldn't let the consultant see them?

If they are yours and there is nothing keeping you from providing them, then provide them if the person really needs them.

Make a decision and move on...

After we sending our project quality plan to the consultant , the consultant replies to us asking for the procedures, our internal quality procedures ( control of documents , records, procurement, HRD, internal audit, and also the technical procedure like procedure for concrete) even our HSE procedures they are asking for.

You say 'the consultant'. What is their consulting brief? ie, what are they consulting to you about? Why are they assisting, and what are they doing?