Civil Engineering Project Management (4th Edition)

Tendering 67
If pre-qualification is not used, a contract notice advertisement must be
issued. Minimum times are set for lists to remain open. After the award of
a contract, an award notice must be issued.
• Contract award criteria. The criteria which are to be applied in awarding a
contract must be set out. The choice may be the lowest tender, or that
which is economically the most advantageous. In the latter case the factors
which will be taken into account when judging tenders must be stated and
adhered to.
• Publicity. All required notices must be published in the Official Journal of
the EC, using standard formats.
• Standards. Standards must not be set in specifications in a manner which
restricts trade between Community members. European standards, or
National standards which implement such standards, take preference over
any others.
The EC is not the only body setting rules for tendering. The major international
lending authorities such as the World Bank, Asian Development Fund,
UNO, WHO, etc. also have rules to ensure that tenders are open to international
contractors, or to contractors from countries funding a project, or to
conform to some specific requirement. Individual countries often require that
tendering procedures shall be so designed that either certain goods and services
come only from inside the country, or maximum possible use is made
of these. Limits may be set on the use of imported goods or services. On construction
contracts tenderers may be required to work in conjunction with
local contractors and the number of expatriates the contractor employs in the
country may be restricted.
6.3 Procedures under selective tendering
If an employer is not subject to any of the restrictions outlined in the previous
section, he may make a selected list of contractors from those who have
served him satisfactorily in the past or those recommended to him. However,
for public authorities in the EC, EC rules will apply for contracts above a
certain value as described in the Section 6.2, and elsewhere in-country rules or
rules set by an international funding agency may apply. For selective tendering,
lists of potentially suitable tenderers who have pre-qualified under a previous
selection process can be compiled. These can be standing lists reviewed
perhaps annually, or lists compiled for specific types of work. Under EC regulations,
selecting a list of pre-qualified tenderers on ‘a framework basis’ is
also possible (see Section 1.12). The ‘framework’ either provides for such tenderers
to bid for future contracts of a given kind, or permits direct selection of
a tenderer on the basis of competitive rates already tendered.
Contractors wishing to be placed on a standing list may either answer the
employer’s advertisements or apply direct to the employer. This pre-qualification