What types of tenders are there ?
- Open Tender
- Negotiated Tender
- Select (or invited) Tender
- Pre-registration with select Tender / Pre-qualification
What is an open tender ?
- It is a tender open to anyone advertised in news paper or online portal.
- Very competitive
- Used by local and state government via Qtender
What is a negotiated tender ?
- Single contractor is negotiated with
- Allows ECI early contractor involvement to provide cost estimates and construction advice
- Less competitive
What is a selective tender ?
- Select contractors are invited to submit tender
- Tenderers are selected based on prior experiences, reputation
what is a pre-registration / pre-qualification tender ?
- Prequalification is a means of identifying contractors who indicate that they are qualified and would be interested in tendering for a potential project.
- Allows any contractor to apply for pre-qualification and then contractors who are qualified are invited to selected tender.
- Pre-qualification criteria can involve anything important to the project, insurances, prior experience, management systems, key personel etc.
In the code of tendering what are some of the principal’s obligations ?
- Tender process, requirements and documents should all be clear and complete
- Esnure project funding is in place before tendering
- Allow reasonable time between calling for tenders and closing of tenders
- Give the same information to all tenderers
- Avoid amendments. Extend tender period if required for Addendums .Minor changes can be dealt with in precontract negotiations.
- Closing of tender appropriate days, not earlier than 2pm.
- Do not share tenderers alternatives
- Principal to exhaust negotiations with intially preffered tenderer before negotiating with subsequent tenderer.
What needs to go into a tender package for tendering contractors?
Notice to tenderers - Provides the information tenderers require to prepare and lodge a tender.
Conditions of Tendering - outlines information that should accompany the tender, the details for lodging tenders and the matters that will be taken into account when considering tenders.
General Conditions of Contract - If standard form contract to be used not included. Just advice on how to obtain.
Contract Schedules - Critical. All contract schedules or appendices completed except for items to be submitted by tenderers.
Tender Form - To ensure that the tender is complete and that all the information necessary to review the tender is provided
Schedules of Monetary Sums - monetary sums, provisional sums, prime cost sums. Only if not included in the contract schedules.
Tender Schedules - To be completed by tenderer and could include current commitments, rates, relevant information on proposed ‘particular persons’.
Technical Specification - By specialist consultants.
Drawings - By specialist consultants.
BoQ - Bill of Quantites - if applicable.
What is included in the ‘notice to tender’s?
- Provides the information that tenderers require to prepare and lodge a tender.
- a project summary
- a listing of the Tender Documentation and how it can be obtained
- key dates, such as briefing times, site visits and tender closing time
- the Agency’s contact details
- the number of copies and format required for submission (electronic or hard copy)
- details of the tender submission location and timing
What is the purpose of conditions of tendering?
outlines information that should accompany the tender, the details for lodging tenders and the matters that will be taken into account when considering tenders.
What are Contract Schedules (annexures)?
Critical. All contract schedules or appendices completed except for items to be submitted by tenderers.
What are Tender Schedules?
- Tender response schedules are the forms suppliers complete when they bid to supply goods, works or services. Information in these forms help you evaluate their submissions.
- Such schedules could include current commitments, rates, relevant information on proposed ‘particular persons’ and on separate contracts.
What are Specification Schedules?
- Specs - The main specification and any separate technical specifications for the project prepared by specialist consultants must be included.
- Schedules - doors, hardware, windows, sanitary fittings, electrical fittings, furniture and so on.
How will the tenders be assessed? Where to from there?
- Make sure they are conforming tenders
- Review conforming tenderer’s prices and write report and recommendations
- Note any exclusions listed as this will affect the price
- Note any alternative solutions/products
- Make sure they’re licensed builders. QBCC website
- Preferred tender is accepted
- Begin further negotiations with preferred tender – if prices is close
- Send letters to non-successful tenderers
- Confirmation of accepted tender needs to be in writing
- Contract documents need to be prepared for signing
How do you form a selected list of prospective tenders?
- Make sure they’re licensed builders. QBCC website
- Talk to an architect who has worked with them in the past
- Does the contractor have the relevant experience necessary to do the work?
- Does the contractor have the capacity to complete the work?
- Does the contractor have the insurances necessary to complete the work ?
The client’s cousin is a builder and client would like to use him as the contractor. What do you do?
- State the risks to both the client and the architect. It will be a personal risk and potentially a conflict of interest.
- They can be put on the tender list but this may conflict with the other tenderers opinion on how unbiased the tender selection is.
- Reference the code of tendering within the conditions of tendering.
- Ensure your reservations are written in correspondence with the client.
The lowest tender comes in 25% less than the others. Can the client accept this tender?
- Yes the client can accept this tender, however it is prudent to warn the client that there may be major omissions to the tender. This may result in costly variation during construction.
- Check for exclusions or if they are missing anything, if so ask the tender if they would like to stand by their tender or withdraw.
What is a bill of quantities ?
- A bill of quantities is a document used in tendering in the construction industry in which materials, parts, and labor and their costs are itemized.
- The bill of quantities is issued to tenderers for them to prepare a price for carrying out the construction work. The bill of quantities assists tenderers in the calculation of construction costs for their tender, and, as it means all tendering contractors will be pricing the same quantities (rather than taking-off quantities from the drawings and specifications themselves), it also provides a fair and accurate system for tendering.
- Prepared by QS or Building Esitmator.
What do you do when a tenderer notifies you of discrepancies in the tender documents?
- Review the issue and assess the implications
- Correct the issue and issue an addendum to all tenderers - make sure there is sufficient time for tenders to take this new information into account
What are tenderer’s options during negotiations ?
- No add-backs allowed
- Stand by their tender as-is
- Withdraw their exclusions and maintain their price
- Withdraw from the tender entirely
How long is a typical tender period ?
- Simple
- $0.5M - 10 weeks
- $1.0M - 15 weeks
- Conventional
- $1.0M - 15 weeks
- $1.0M - $5.0M - 20 weeks
- > $5.0M - 25 weeks
- Complex
- $10.0M - 25
- >$10.0M - 30
BOQ can reduce by around 5 weeks
What are the step of the tender process ?
- Tender Preparation
- Project definition and scoping
- Selection process for tenderers
- Tender documentation
- Criteria for selection
- Tendering
- Call for Tenders
- Tender meetings & Enquiries
- Amendments to Tender Documents
- Submission & Closing of tenders
- Tender Evaluation
- Tender review
- Tender clarifications
- Tender selection & acceptance
What is the code of tendering ?
- AS4120
- It sets out the ethics and the obligations of the Principal and Tenderers in tendering in the construction industry.
- Not law
What are some of the tenderers obligations in the code of tendering?
- Only submit a tender if they genuinely believe they have the competence and capacity to do the work
- Tenders are to thoroughly evaluate the documents and seek clarification if in doubt.
- Advise the principal of errors, omissions, ambiguities & discrepencies
- Shall not collude with other tenderers
What is a Makret-led proposal ?
Market-led proposals are proposals from the private sector that seek an exclusive commercial arrangement with government to deliver a service or infrastructure to meet a community need. They always include a role for government, such as providing access to government land, assets, information, or networks. In return, market-led proposals are expected to provide benefits to government and/or the Queensland community.
