Buy local policy comes under fire

A local environmental water analysis company has accused the Water Corporation of going against the State Government's buy local policy by repeatedly overlooking them for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars of local contracts.

West Coast Analytical Services director Charles Williams said his laboratory, which started in 2006, had been repeatedly overlooked in preference of a privately owned foreign company based in Perth, despite being equally qualified.

Mr Williams said his laboratory had been recently assessed through industry testing rounds conducted nationally and globally, and ranked as a top performer against 51 laboratories, including 40 from Australia and 11 from overseas.

He said gaining world recognised accreditation was "rigorous and exhaustive" and achieving those high standards should have allowed them to compete on an "equal footing" with Perth-based corporate laboratories.

"The main concern is those small businesses regionally who are performing and, in some cases … are punching above their weight, deserve every consideration from the entities such as the Water Corp," he said.

"Why is it that a large privately owned foreign company that is right around the world gets all this work to the exclusion of regionally based businesses?"

Regional Development Minister Terry Redman said he had raised the issue with the Water Corporation on at least two occasions.

"It is my understanding that Water Corporation use a Statewide service provider for all water analysis services, and that they have invited West Coast Analytical Services to register with them as a supplier, but this is yet to be taken up," Mr Redman said.

But Mr Williams said the request was unreasonable.

"They are saying to us you could be a preferred supplier but you would have to take the whole State of WA," he said. "They know perfectly well we are not in a position to take on the entire State."

Water Corporation Great Southern regional manager Andrew Kneebone said a Statewide service provider was chosen to ensure effective and efficient management of rigorous turnaround times for testing and results, and reduced costs of ordering services, testing, invoice processing and payments.