Thursday, April 03, 2008

Public Tender

Singapore is used to the public tender system. The business is awarded to the tenderer who submitted the most competitive (lowest) bid. In some cases, the tenderer have to bid below cost, to win the tender. They find ways to cut corners to meet the low budget, leading to a poor quality of work.

Someone observed that the public tender system favours the large companies. They have the financial resources to spend money to submit the bid. The smaller companies are not able to compete.

I hope that there is another way for the principal to offer a reasonable price, and select the contractor based on their ability to deliver a better quality of work.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Town Council projects are also awarded in open tender, but it is no guarantee to award to lowest, can be second lowest.

And the other factor is who is who in the tender.

Is there no corruption or nypotism in Singapore?

Politics is never clean.

Think about this.

April 03, 2008 11:42 PM
Ching said...

Just recall how many contractors failed or went bust in public tender works such as Marine Parade's HDB Upgrading program, MacRitchie Makeover, Nicoll Highway Collapse due to competition on costs.

I guess one way out is for the principal to award more points during the interview round at tenders, and for the principal to spend time visiting existing clients of the tenderers for qualitative feedback.

April 03, 2008 11:57 PM

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