Tendering

Question 1

What is the difference between procurement and tendering?

Answer 1

Tendering is the way of selecting a suitable contractor to carry out works and setting price.
Procurement is the process of purchasing the service or goods.

Question 2

Define and explain the process of tendering?

Answer 2

Submission made by prospective suppliers in response to an invitation to tender. Make suppliers bid for work and get most competitive and appropriate supplier.

Question 3

What is the tender process?

Answer 3

Prepare tender docs - tender period - assess tender returns - tender report - employer selects most appropriate tender - contract signed

Question 4

Name the main tendering methods used in the construction industry and give a brief explanation of each?

Answer 4

Open tendering - allows anyone to submit a tender
Selective tendering - suppliers submit a tender by invitation
Negotiated tendering - negotiate with a single supplier

Question 5

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?

Answer 5

Open tendering:
Adv:
-may become aware of suppliers who are suitable but not heard of before
-offers greatest competition
Disadv:
- anyone can tender, may not have the skills required to fulfil the job

Selective tendering:
Adv:
-only invite those you want to potentially work with
-know the skills of the suppliers
-can be specific
Disadv:
-excludes smaller unknown firms

Question 6

What is two-stage tendering and can you advise when it should be used?

Answer 6

1st stage and appointment to commence work is agreed. 2nd stage a fixed price is confirmed for the work.
Allows for early appointment of supplier - potential for reduced project time.

Question 7

What would you check before selecting a suitable contractor to be included on a tender list?

Answer 7

• financial capabilities
• references
• labours skills/expertise
• current projects they are working on - capacity
• prelim enquiry

Question 8

What is meant by the term cover pricing and how can you reduce the risk of it occurring?

Answer 8

Involves one or more bidders in a tender process submitting an artificially inflated price with the aim of not securing the contract.

Question 9

What are tender rules, give some examples?

Answer 9

How the tender process is managed e.g. key dates, return details, details of documents which form tender packaging

Question 10

Advise which tendering method you would use if you wanted to secure a specialist contractor to carry out the work?

Answer 10

Negotiated tendering - employer invites a contractor of his choice to submit tender.

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of selecting the lowest bid when using open tendering?

Answer 11

Anyone can bid for tender therefore a firm offer the lowest price may not actually be able to fulfil the requirements of the work.

Question 12

What does parity of tendering mean?

Answer 12

Making sure that offers put forward are compatible and are based upon the same information.

Question 13

How do you deal with queries during the tender period?

Answer 13

Mid-tender interviews can be arranged to allow for clarification. Need to allow sufficient time to deal with queries otherwise an inaccurate tender may be submitted.

Question 14

What factors would you consider when assessing a suitable tender period?

Answer 14

• capability
• history of projects completed/references
• technical expertise
• risk assessment
• debts
• other projects working on

Question 15

What is the preliminary enquiry?What information does it contain?

Answer 15

In order for contractors to decide whether they will tender and to anticipate the demands on their tendering staff, each firm should be sent and should reply to a preliminary enquiry for invitation to tender.
Will include; project name, type or function of building, location of site, employers name.

Question 16

What is a PQQ? What sections/headings are included? What are the advantages of using one?

Answer 16

Pre-qualification questionnaire.

• Company details
• details of insurance
• financial information
• H&S policy

Adv- reduces the number of potential tender to those that are genuinely appropriate for the project, it saves time.

Question 17

What should you do if a tender if submitted late? Why?

Answer 17

The employer will be able to accept the documents at there discretion if there are ‘exceptional circumstances’ for the delay or they can dismiss the bid.