Estimators Network

Although an initial review of the offers received is done at the bid opening event, a preliminary examination of the offers is done at the beginning of the evaluation process to determine, the responsiveness of the offers to the solicitation documents. After that, a detailed examination is done only of the offers that complied with (were responsive to) the requirements of the solicitation documents.

Once the tenders are submitted, they must be evaluated in order to arrive at the selection of the preferred bidder.

Bids will generally be assessed first on a number of pass/fail criteria before the single preferred bidder is decided on. For example:

• even if the evaluation score is not based on a technical evaluation, a determination must be made that the technical solution proposed by a bidder is feasible, deliverable and robust, that it is based on reliable technologies, that it meets all minimum technical requirements set and that the costs and financial structure are consistent with the technical solution; and
• it is important to look at the proposed project management: the bidding consortium must come across as a cohesive entity rather than just a collection of companies put together for bidding purposes.

A key issue is the choice of the criteria for the evaluation and scoring of alternative bids.

Occasionally, only one bidder will submit a tender despite the Authority having issued the invitation to tender to several shortlisted candidates. Should that happen, in good procurement practice, the question of how to proceed should be considered case by case.

• If it appears that bidder interest was low because of deficiencies in the tender documents (including the project specifications or the draft PPP contract) and these can realistically be remedied, then the best solution might be to repeat the tender procedure this time on a better footing.
• If it appears that the bid was made in the bidder’s belief that there would be a good level of competition (and this should be supported by the Authority’s advisers carrying out benchmarking of costs and in some cases by insisting on actual market testing of the costs of the major subcontracts), then the best solution might be to continue with the procurement and consider the sole bidder to be the winner, provided that the tender is fully compliant and meets all pass/fail evaluation criteria.