The Operating Guidelines for Adopting the Most Favorable Bid in Huge Construction Procurement Projects by Procuring Agencies were formulated, and it is also stipulated that the contract for a huge construction procurement project shall in general principal be awarded based on the most favorable bid(Taiwan)

2016.09.23
Luke Hung

The Public Construction Commission promulgated the Operating Guidelines for Adopting the Most Favorable Bid for Huge Construction Procurement Projects (hereinafter, the “Guidelines”) by Procuring Agencies via the Gong-Cheng-Qi-10500305770 of September 23, 2016. Consisting of eight points, the Guidelines came into effect on the day of their promulgation and specifically provide for the principle that the most favorable bid shall be the general principle for awarding contracts in huge construction procurement projects. The Guidelines are highlighted below:
1. Basically, the most favorable bid shall be the general principal for huge construction procurement projects with evaluation items selected based on the characteristics of individual cases.
Point 2 of the Guidelines indicates that when conducting a huge construction procurement project, the procuring agency shall generally consider the differences between the bidders in terms of their performance capability, project items, technical specifications, construction methods, progress, quality, and interface management; it is inappropriate to award the contract to the lowest bidder; and the contract award should be in general principal based on the most favorable bid. If the contract is to be awarded to the lowest bidder, it is necessary to analyze matters such as how to ensure the contract performance capability, construction quality and progress of the contractor before the tender is conducted. In addition, relevant requirements should be properly stipulated in the tender instructions. The bid award principle for a huge construction procurement project should be submitted to the procurement review committee set up by the procuring agency for review before the tender is conducted. Points 4 of the Guidelines provides that the evaluation items set forth in the tender instructions shall be selected based on the characteristics of individual cases. Points 6 provides that a procuring agency who needs to submit their adoption of the most favorable bid to its superior agency for approval may consolidate several procurement projects in one submission.

2. Matters concerning the selection of the evaluation committee for the most favorable bid
Point 3 of the Guidelines points out that the procurement evaluation committee set up by a procuring agency for the most favorable bid should consist of members selected based on their expertise relating to the procurement project, impartiality, objectivity and moral character. If externally recruited members are selected from the recommended list or database of experts and scholars from the Government e-Procurement System, the relevance of their expertise to the procurement project should be scrutinized, and they should not be selected randomly by computer or manually.

3. Encouragement measures for bidders
Point 5 of the Guidelines provides that to encourage bidders to participate in the tender, the procuring agency should specifically indicate in the tender instructions that bidders who receive a certain evaluation score but are not selected will be eligible of a specific amount of reward on a case-by-case basis.