Understanding pre-qualification preferences of public clients in traditional and design-build procurement systems

Abstract

The present study investigated the pre-qualification (PQ) process followed by various public clients in India to find their preferences regarding the pre-qualification criterions and also to ascertain if 'single step' procurement or a 'two-step' procurement process was favoured by clients. The approach used in this study was content analysis of 111 numbers of request for qualification (RFQ)/request for proposal (RFP)/notice inviting tenders (NITs) issued by public clients. Total eight 'pre-qualification categories' were identified along with 14 'PQ criterions' for traditional procurement and 13 'PQ criterions' for design build (DB) procurement. The study concluded that 'experience in executing similar projects', 'performance of executed projects' and 'financial capability of bidder' were the most preferred PQ categories and it was also found that single step procurement was preferred by public clients compared to two-step procurement for all types of construction projects. The findings of this study are expected to make contribution to the existing body of knowledge due to their relevance to academic fraternity as well as to those stakeholders of construction industry who wish to gain better understanding of PQ process in Indian public project procurement.