Contractor Qualification Research Articles

Stop Guessing About Underwater Inspection and Repair Projects

When a water utility project calls for underwater work, it's up to the utility to secure a competent dive contractor. It's important to understand what's expected of a qualified contractor and know how to find one.

A non-price-based tender evaluation methodology considering tenderers’ self-confidence with partial value functions and time decay analysis

The construction industry is characterized by complex environments, adversity, fierce competition, and heavy tasks, and faces many challenges during project execution, including cost acceleration, delays, and quality issues. Tendering is a competitive procurement process used to select the main contractor or supplier. The process is often associated with high risk, and its success is strongly influenced by how it is managed. These factors make selecting a qualified and suitable contractor for a construction project a challenging and complex task. The results of a selection can have an impact on a project's performance and success; selecting unsuitable contractors can cause delays, cost overruns, low-quality work, disputes, and additional costs for the owner. Research shows that public agencies, in particular, face the challenge of selecting the most appropriate tender. Generally, public construction projects are awarded at the lowest price for financial accountability, but it is not the best option because it may damage the balance between time, cost, and quality. However, as contracting authorities recognize the benefits of evaluating tenders based on non-price criteria, they are increasingly using them instead of just price. Therefore, this study proposes an innovative formulaic scoring model by evaluating the price offer as well as eleven non-price factors that have been examined in previous studies to select the most suitable contractor for the project. This method uses partial value functions differently, and tenderers' past performance scores are modified using the time decay correction function. The most unique aspect of this study is the requirement for tenderers to determine their own suitability and risks. To validate the proposed model, a hypothetical scenario based on a real case has been used. It is evident from the results that the optimal choice depends on the weights of criteria, contractors’ self-determined offers, and past performance. Construction firms, as well as contracting authorities, can benefit greatly from the application of the proposed model.

On the Separation of Scientific Activity and the State-owned Corporate Form of Science Management in Contemporary Russia. Part 1

The article presents the details of ideas and proposals announced by the author in 2021 within the framework of the round table of the “Science Management: Theory and Practice” journal (on the topic “Science in an Innovative Economy”). The proposed measures are considered as increasingly relevant in the face of the long-term confrontation with the ‘collective West’ which is striving for scientific and technological isolation of contemporary Russia. The first part of the article gives an overview of the developments and trends observed both among Russian researchers, including scholars in science studies, and in the field of state regulation of scientific, academic and technological activities, as well as provides a critical analysis of organizational and legal aspects and practices of interaction between models of a ‘qualified customer’ and a ‘qualified contractor’ of scientific research and development. According to the results of the analysis, the author justifies the conclusion about the need for separation of scientific activities in present-day Russia. Separation is understood as the process of concentration and rational differentiation of the proper ‘scientific’ and then scientific and technological activities from the related quasi-scientific fields. The appropriate legal and organizational measures serve as the separator (separation mechanism) in this context. It is proposed to develop and implement them in the near future with the direct participation of Russian researchers endowed with state responsibility and the appropriate powers and authority.

Relationship between the Maintenance Management Problems and the Maintenance Performance of High-Rise Residential Buildings

Building maintenance is the practice to retain the property habitable and functioning as it is designed for. However, the effectiveness of maintenance management appears to be the issue in housing context. Many maintenance management problems still exist up to date. They are likely to influence the service quality and resident satisfaction. Therefore, the objective of this research is to establish the relationship between the maintenance management problems and the maintenance performance. The research adopted quantitative approach to achieve the research aim. The approach comprised of literature review, questionnaire survey using google form that included both close-ended and open-ended questions. Based on the literature review, fourteen (14) maintenance management problems of high-rise residential buildings are identified. From the correlation analysis result, two (2) significance correlations are determined. The maintenance budget overrun is significantly correlated with the ratio of actual maintenance spent to planned maintenance cost (cost variance) of high-rise residential building, and a significant correlation occurs between unavailability of spare parts and ratio of actual to planned maintenance downtime (equipment effectiveness) of high-rise residential building. Besides, the opinions and strategies on solving the maintenance management problems were provided, including educating the residents about the Strata Management Act 2013, selecting qualified maintenance contractor, outsourcing the maintenance services, implementation of preventive maintenance (PM), hiring specialist to perform special maintenance work, providing training for maintenance staffs, formulating the building maintenance regulation, ensuring transparency of financial account, and setting up maintenance policy.

Applying claim reduction criteria in selecting efficient contractors with the two-step grey data envelopment analysis approach

PurposeThe application of correct contractor selection strategies leads to the selection of a qualified contractor and, as a result, the on-time delivery of the project with the desired quality and within the predetermined budgetary constraints. For this reason, evaluating and qualifying contractors before reviewing the proposed prices has been considered an important issue. One factor that disrupts the project completion process and the failure to achieve pre-planned goals effectively is the occurrence of contractors' disputes and claims in projects. To this end, the present study explores claim-reduction strategies for selecting effective contractors in an uncertain environment to reduce possible problems.Design/methodology/approachThe two-step grey data envelopment analysis (GDEA) approach was used to measure efficiency as a powerful tool in selecting efficient contractors during tenders. This approach can extend the applications of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models. In other words, given some uncertainties, the unavailability of some data, and the problems with the DEA model, the two-step GDEA model was used to rank the contractors. The data confirmed the satisfactory outcomes from the selected model.FindingsThe preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors lacking required qualifications, and selecting efficient contractors. At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation. Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the organization's effective material and non-material profit.Originality/valueOil and gas plans and projects have a significant, sensitive, and decisive role in the economic, social, political, cultural, infrastructural, and all-round development of Iran; This is while most of the financial resources needed to implement the development and programs across the country come from oil revenues. Studies have indicated that despite the importance of these plans and projects, many of them are not completed successfully, and this causes irreparable losses to the country's economy and development in various fields.HighlightThe findings of this study can be used by organizations to select more effective contractors to assign projects and plans to them.The preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors who lack required qualifications, and finally selecting efficient contractors.At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation.This approach also gives credit to the employer during the execution period and contributes to assessing unqualified contractors and reducing the temptation to hand over the project to an unqualified contractor but with a lower bid price.Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the effective material and non-material profit of the organization.Moreover, it provides an extra-organizational evaluation for contractors, motivating them to upgrade their capabilities and optimally allocate material and non-material resources, especially human resources.

Using the ISM Method to Analyze the Relationships between Various Contractor Prequalification Criteria

Construction contractors significantly contribute to the progress and success of projects. Contractor prequalification grants tendering rights only to competent contractors. The bidding process is one of the most critical phases in the construction industry. The project leader must assess the general, technical, and financial information of the contractors to prepare an accurate proposal and select the best contractor. In this study, contractor prequalification is considered, along with the complex relationships between various criteria. ISM is a computational method that involves a qualitative and interpretive approach to solving complex problems based on structural mapping of the connections between attributes and their subsequent transformation into a multilevel structural model. Using ISM, we establish a seven-level hierarchy for various contractor prequalification criteria, which are then grouped into four clusters based on their driving power and dependence power. The result of this study shows that ISM can be used to rank complex contractor prequalification criteria and help managers select a qualified contractor in the construction project bidding process during the strategic planning phase.

Contractors Pre-Qualification Guideline Used in Contractor Selection for Public Building Project in Southeast Nigeria: A Case Study of Imo State, Nigeria

The incessant poor project delivery of contractors in the execution of public buildings is a reoccurring decimal in various areas of southeast Nigeria and the salient question people keep asking is if the qualified contractor is engaged and by extension the basis of assessment of contractors before engagement? It is in response to this curiosity that this paper set out to evaluate the prequalification guideline/criteria used in engaging contractors in Southeast Nigeria, using Imo state as a case study. It was pursued, using literature review and field survey entailing the use of a well-structured questionnaire. A total of three hundred and eighty-four (384) questionnaires were distributed with three hundred and fifty (350) returned adequately filled giving a response rate of 91.0% The responses were analyzed using the SPSS software version 25. The result revealed among others; Some of the contracts are not awarded regarding any specific selection guideline but basically on executive awards; in few cases where contractors are selected based on an in-house performance evaluation, the most demanded document arranged in the order of frequency of demand are: financial capacity/Bank support Document’; ‘Building Construction license’. Finally, the study recommendsa thorough examination of contractors at the pre-selection phases before engaging any contractor. This is to ensure that competent and qualified contractors only engage and adequate project delivery within the study area.

Qualification of Contractor Towards Construction Project in the City of Banjarmasin, Indonesia

This study identified the correlation between small contractor qualification and work performance of the contractor in the city of Banjarmasin. This study used the perspective of descriptive quantitative for social research. The data were collected through questionnaires distributed to contractors who worked in Banjarmasin Public Works and Spatial Planning Office (PUPR) as an agency who exploited contractor service. The analysis was conducted through product moment in Spearman’s rank model. This study has resulted that the conspicuous performance factor was fulfillment of work (job) function and scope of work that are similar to the documents of project’s contract. Meanwhile, the correlation of small contractor qualification and work performance of project construction in Banjarmasin was influenced by Person in-charge of Business Agency (PJBU).

Bid evaluation in civil construction under uncertainty: A two-stage LSP-ELECTRE III-based approach

Increasing growth and development of building industry and civil engineering motivates enterprises to advance bid evaluation process in an effort to ameliorate building quality and diminish construction cost. The selection of qualified construction contractor has been generally formulated and addressed as a multi-attribute group decision-making problem. However, few existing studies have taken the reasoning logic pattern in human cognition process and the compensatory among attributes into account. Therefore, a two-stage logic scoring of preference-ELECTRE III-based approach is established for the management and manipulation of bidder selection. In a bid to facilitate expert evaluation articulation, alternative-attribute assessments in this approach take the form of generalized comparative linguistic expressions, which are subsequently converted into possibility-distribution-based hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set via the similarity measure-based generation approach to enhance information quality and reliability. Then, nonlinear optimization-based direction rules are introduced to advance the automatic minimum-distance-based consensus reaching model and based on which, the individual semantic-embedded assessments are algorithmically adjusted to reach acceptable consensus. Furthermore, the expert and attribute importance degrees are extracted from both semantic and formal logic aspects, and the modified individual assessments are gathered by integrating the two-stage logic scoring of preference aggregation structure and the ELECTRE III method. The present approach provides a solution to bid evaluation problems considering the reasoning logic pattern in human cognition process and the compensatory among attributes. A practical case study and a comparative analysis are performed to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the established multi-attribute group decision-making approach.

THE FACTORS MILITATING INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS ON ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

There are numerous participants involved in construction projects including the client or sponsor of the project, regulatory bodies, contractors, consultants, ward councilors, community who affect or become affected by the project. Stakeholders can affect the road construction positive or negatively. Stakeholder’s engagement is done to avoid unnecessary conflicts and controversies and to attain the desired successful implementation of the project. The paper aims to identify the impact of internal stakeholders on road construction project. Quantitative approach was adopted for this study. 100 questionnaires were distributed and 76 were collected and analyzed. The data was collected through primary and secondary sources. Factor analysis was conducted, Correlation matric coefficients has been conducted to ensure visibility of coefficients greater than 0.3 and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkim (KMO) and Barlett’s test were conducted. From the findings it transpired that late payment to service providers; failure to verify contractor qualification; Client knowledge to review design documentation; inadequate involvement during construction project, lack of understanding project feasibility. The participation of stakeholders encourages the public to share their knowledge with the regulatory authorities, fosters better-informed decisions and decreases likelihood of project failure. Early stakeholder’s involvement can add benefits of diffusing opposition to a project.

Assessment of transaction costs for construction projects

The main premise of transaction cost economics is that project cost is not only production costs but there are also additional costs resulting from transactions between parties. Transaction costs include the costs of preparing the bidding package, estimating and drawing up a contract, administering the contract, dealing with any deviations from contract conditions and any contractual problems include claims, change orders, and disputes. The main objectives of this paper are to establish the factors that affecting transaction costs in construction projects in Egypt, assessing its value in Egyptian construction projects, and to provide a mathematical model that can predict transaction costs value accurately. The study was conducted on various types of construction projects in Egypt, which formed the sample size. To collect data, a questionnaire was used that was personally administered to the respondents, using emails and conducting semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS program, and a software package named IBM. The findings indicated that: the most important factors affecting positively (decreasing transaction cost value) on transaction cost value in construction projects in Egypt are: the financial position of the contractor, claims filed by the contractor, material substitutions by the contractor, contractor experience in similar type projects, contractor`s relationship with previous clients, contractor qualification to do the job, and procurement method.Transaction cost in the pre-contract phase of construction projects in Egypt is approximately (3–4) % of the contract value on average, and the average value for post-contract transaction cost is approximately (8–9) % of the contract value. All factors accredited as influential factors were taken into account and developed in an account model, the study devolved accounting models that can predict transaction cost value as a percentage of the project capital for construction projects in Egypt, two techniques were used, first is regression analysis with two methods (enter-stepwise), and second is the neural network, all models showed a high accuracy up to 95% in predicting transaction cost value for construction projects in Egypt.

The Significance Risk for Factors of Labour, Material, and Equipment on Construction Project Quality

The construction involves a series of activities that possibly face problems or risks. The risk probability is an uncertain condition that results in a negative impact on the project objectives. Threats can come from the resources factor in a construction project, such as labour, materials, and equipment. The handling of risks in construction work needs to be further reviewed. It is to find risk factors and risk variables contributing to high risk to achieve the quality objectives of construction implementation. The purpose of this study was to analyze the most significant risk towards the quality of construction associated with the condition of the Province of Aceh during 2000-2015. The situation is classified in three periods, namely political conflict (2000-2004 as Period I), rehabilitation and reconstruction (2005-2009 as Period II), and post-rehabilitation and reconstruction (2010-2015 as Period III). Dataset is collected using questionnaires to 15 large qualified contractor companies to capture construction quality information. The risk significance identified based on Risk Importance Index (RII) for frequency and severity of factors and variables. There are 7 variables for labour resources, 10 variables for material resources, and 17 variables for equipment resources. The quality of construction mostly affected by the labour resources factors in Period I and Period III. The risk comes from the variable discipline of workers who are not good (A3). For Period II, the lack of labour capacity (A2) variable become as the most significant risk.

Readiness for E-Tendering in the Construction Sector- Designing a Computer Programme

Development of a country is measured by the number and quality of modern and contemporary projects that have been and are being established. As the construction industry is the nucleus for the development of any country, the stages of each project are tracked and monitored. It was found that the procurement stage has the biggest and most important influence in the successful completion of the project with the desired results. This research aims to eliminate corruption in the procurement process, identify the additional factors relating to a contractor’s qualification that contribute towards an increase in the quality of the project; designing a computer programme that conducts the tender process electronically to avoid any human contact. The researcher designed a questionnaire which contains a number of factors that would increase the efficiency and quality of the project. The researcher distributed 50 questionnaire forms and received back 46 completed forms. The questionnaire outputs were analyzed by using the SPSS software which can be defined as a software package used in statistical analysis for data. After analyzing the results a nominal group session was held. This consisted of eight employees with technical, financial, legal, and supervisory and IT expertise. The work was collective and many questions were asked. All relevant factors were discussed. It was agreed to cancel three factors only as being irrelevant to the contractor's qualification process. The most significant findings were that if the organizations adopt the E-T system in the tendering process, corruption cases will disappear, the tendering process will be achieved with high level of integrity and transparency, and in order to implement the E-T system, the organization must be ready to change, the employees should have enough courage to adopt the system, and there would be a need for at least one person to play the role of champion/leader.

The relationship between project performance of emerging contractors in government infrastructure projects and their experience and technical qualifications

Various studies have been conducted to investigate the reasons for the comparative failure of small contractors. Many of these studies have found the reasons for failure to be primarily related to factors that are beyond the control of the contractor or business management. Little attention has been paid to technical factors. This study sought to investigate the correlation between the performance of emerging contractors in government infrastructure projects to their technical qualifications and experience. An archive research methodology was adopted where contractor performance information was collected on 30 CE and GB projects conducted in Mpumalanga Province. The project data was then used alongside contractor qualification and experience data to investigate their relationship. When evaluating the qualification level, it was found that contractors with higher qualifications show better performance. It was also found that contractors with more technical qualifications perform better than those without. This study also concluded that contractors with more years of experience in the construction industry show better project performance. It is recommended that a much broader investigation must be carried out to examine to what extent these conclusions are applicable throughout South Africa. If so, there are important implications for the modification of existing procurement policy and procurement practice.

PENGARUH FAKTOR-FAKTOR KUALIFIKASI KONTRAKTOR TERHADAP KUALITAS PROYEK KONSTRUKSI JALAN DI KOTA BANDA ACEH

The number of contractor companies, especially in the field of roads every year continues to increase. Based on data obtained from LPJK website (Construction Services Development Agency) Province of Aceh Year 2016, shows that from 2,717 road contractors in Aceh Province, 1% of them are big qualification, 10% middle qualification and 89% small qualification. The problem is from the increasing number of road contractor companies in Aceh Province, it has not been followed by an increase in qualification and performance. These improvements can be seen from the quality of work, the timeliness of completion of implementation, and the efficiency of resource utilization of personnel, capital, and technology. This study aims to analyze the relationship and influence between contractor's qualification factors on the quality of road construction project, and to know the dominant factor in contractor company's qualification affecting the quality of road construction project in Banda Aceh City. This study used qualitative and quantitative methods through questionnaires, where the respondents were addressed to 90 road contractor companies. The contractor company has implemented projects from 2010-2016, with funding sources from APBA. The independent variables reviewed are contractor qualification factors consisting of legal factors, technical factors, and administrative factors, while the dependent variable is the quality of road construction projects. The results show that the legal, technical and administrative factors all have a very high relationship to the quality of road construction projects in Banda Aceh City. The contractor's qualifying factors all have a significant effect on the quality of road construction projects in Kota Banda Aceh of 91.6%. The dominant factor in the qualification of contractor companies affecting the quality of road construction projects in Banda Aceh is the technical factor. This suggests that when engineering factors are improved by contractors, the quality of road construction projects will increase.

Application of Type-2 Interval Fuzzy Sets to Contractor Qualification Process

The selection of a general contractor for construction works is one of the most important decisions made throughout the entire construction project. It may be decisive in the success or failure of the project (e.g. delays in the commissioning of works, exceeding the budget, low quality of works). The article presents a method for supporting group decision-making in the contractor qualification process. The proposed method is a development of Mikhailov’s approach to Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process. It consists in the aggregation of the decision makers’ judgments using type-2 fuzzy sets, allowing for inaccuracy of the decision-maker’s assessment. The use of an unbiased estimator of standard deviation for determining compromise evaluation enables the small size of the expert group and deviations in their evaluations to be taken into consideration. The quality of the solution obtained through this method was compared with the results obtained by means of Mikhailov’s Fuzzy Preference Programming and Enea & Piazza Method. The use of the proposed method generated better results for this example of preparing a ranking of contractors than the two other methods discussed. The method presented herein may also be proposed for solving decision-making problems in other spheres.

Risk Assessment of Resources Factor in Affecting Project Time

Some risk factors contribute to various adverse effects on project implementation, especially the construction project. Risk needs to be recognized by analyzing the relationship between frequency of risks occurrence and impacts that may arise regarding construction time completion. The superposition of frequency and impact will indicate the risk importance of various risk factors. This research, therefore, aimed to assess the risk importance in time aspects of construction implementation to the contractor as the project executor is associated with the project resource factors. The resource factors reviewed are related to construction labor, materials, and equipment. The object of the study observed is a large qualified contractor company in Aceh Province with experience in the construction field for more than 15 years. The selection of time constraints is linked to the conditions of the company under various situations in Aceh during this period, both during the period of political and military conflicts, in the postdisaster rehabilitation and reconstruction period, and in the post‐rehabilitation and reconstruction period. Characteristics of contractors and risks emerging are observed from the results of questionnaires distributed as instrument of data collection. The three resource factors studied each consists of several risk variables. The use of variables in the questionnaire is determined from the test results related to the validity and reliability of these variables. Risk assessment results of the three factors in the research indicate that the frequency of events and the level of impact of each variable determine the magnitude of the risk importance value. The labor is a factor with higher frequency and intensity of impact than the other two factors of study. Therefore, these factors contribute significantly to the project’s completion time.

Analysis of Criteria Influencing Contractor Selection Using TOPSIS Method

Selection of the most suitable contractor is an important process in public construction projects. This process is a major decision which may influence the progress and success of a construction project. Improper selection of contractors may lead to problems such as bad quality of work and delay in project duration. Especially in the construction projects of public buildings, the proper choice of contractor is beneficial to the public institution. Public procurement processes have different characteristics in respect to dissimilarities in political, social and economic features of every country. In Turkey, Turkish Public Procurement Law PPL 4734 is the main regulatory law for the procurement of the public buildings. According to the PPL 4734, public construction administrators have to contract with the lowest bidder who has the minimum requirements according to the criteria in prequalification process. Public administrators are not sufficient for selection of the proper contractor because of the restrictive provisions of the PPL 4734. The lowest bid method does not enable public construction administrators to select the most qualified contractor and they have realised the fact that the selection of a contractor based on lowest bid alone is inadequate and may lead to the failure of the project in terms of time delay Eand poor quality standards. In order to evaluate the overall efficiency of a project, it is necessary to identify selection criteria. This study aims to focus on identify importance of other criteria besides lowest bid criterion in contractor selection process of PPL 4734. In this study, a survey was conducted to staff of Department of Construction Works of Eskisehir Osmangazi University. According to TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution) for analysis results, termination of construction work in previous tenders is the most important criterion of 12 determined criteria. The lowest bid criterion is ranked in rank 5.

Designing Audit Apps for Armchair Auditors to Analyze Government Procurement Contracts

ABSTRACTEach year, governments around the world spend billions of dollars purchasing a wide variety of goods and services. These governments must spend their money wisely in order to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Although government contracting systems are supposed to be transparent, people may still take advantage of these systems to gain benefits, which leads to high-risk contracts and, sometimes, costly government frauds. Recently, governments in some countries have started open data initiatives in order to make government operations more transparent to their citizens. With the open data, a new type of auditor, called an armchair auditor, could play an important role in monitoring government spending. An armchair auditor could be anyone who has an interest in government expenditures and who usually uses technologies to perform analyses on open data. Few studies have discussed how armchair auditors can better use the open data and what data analytics tools could be applied. To that end, this paper proposes a list of audit apps that could assist armchair auditors in analyzing open government procurement data. These apps could help investigate procurement data from different perspectives, such as validating contractor qualification, detecting defective pricing, etc. This paper uses Brazilian federal government procurement contract data to illustrate the functionality of these apps; however, the apps could be applied to open government data in a variety of other nations.

The Cable Contract

The case deals with an ethical dilemma of an entrepreneur. Chandran, a qualified contractor, had secured an electrical contract from a premier government organization. It was a turnkey project to be executed in a given period of time. In the process of work, he comes across major problems. He could not abandon the project or compromise on his moral values. He wanted a way out to salvage this project that was slowly slipping from his control. This case examines the ethical issues that confront small businesses, employees, suppliers and key stakeholders of every organization and explores the mindset of participants, their personal values and their decision making rationale. The participants get an opportunity to identify with the difficult choices a business situation may throw when ethical mindset clashes with the decision making process.