The contractor

Contritum is a multi$-$discipline contractor with $10$ years$$ experience in railway work. The organisation has doubled in size in the last three years. It has a reputation for aggressively pursuing railway work and getting the work done on time or even earlier. The director of RS has recently attended some entertainment events as a guest of the Board of Contritum.

At a recent event, the RS director discussed the TrainDetect project with the managing director of Contritum. The RS director was told that all Contritum workers are very experienced, producing quality work, and they have worked with Contritum for a long time. Based on accident data, the managing director of Contritum boasted that the organisation has a low number of recorded accidents compared to others in this industry.

Impressed by their apparent strong health and safety values, the RS director decides to meet with the managing director of Contritum again. During this meeting they look at Contritum$$s general risk assessment, method statements and site inspections for previous rail works. The RS director particularly likes the fact that Contritum use their own on$-$site supervisors to conduct their site safety inspections. The inspection results always seem to be to a high standard. The RS director thinks that this will save them time and resources because they will not have to conduct their own regular site inspections.

After the meeting, the RS director decides that Contritum are the contractor of choice for the TrainDetect work for the South region. They also award Contritum the maintenance contract for the region. This includes maintenance on level crossings, replacing lighting at stations, and repairing trackside fencing where it has been damaged or has rotted.

Although Contritum are currently working on other projects and they have never worked on such a large$-$scale project before, they still accept the work for the South region.Task $2$: Contractor management

$2$

$($a$)$ Comment on what was negative about the RS director$$s approach to contractor selection.

$(9)$

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario.

$($b$)$ Comment on what was negative about the co$-$ordination between RS and Contritum.

$(9)$

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario.