An overview of construction procurement methods in Australia

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the use of various construction procurement systems in the past and present, specifically within the Australian construction industry and to overview the historical development of procurement both globally and in the Australian context through the existing literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is an in-depth literature review of various construction procurement systems used in the past and present, both in general and within the context of Australian construction industry.

Findings

The findings suggest that even though relationship-based procurement (RBP) systems offer significant benefits to all project participants, they are unproved by many decision makers because of lack of robust theoretical concept and inability in demonstrating value for money (VfM) for public projects, which would be one of the factors causing move away from RBP in the future.

Originality/value

This review is one of its kind. There is no such review done before within the context of Australian construction industry in such a detail. This review is a part of a recently completed PhD study.