The preparation of tender documents for construction works

Prior to the announcement of a tender for construction works, an employer (client) will typically go through a preparatory process which predominantly involves securing the required financing to build the infrastructure, and preparing appropriate tender documents.

About a year ago, I was part of a project implementation unit which had grown thin because one of our team members had taken his annual leave. During his absence, I was asked to assist the team prepare tender documents for a donor project valued at approximately US$ 60m.

I have participated in the preparation of tender documents for a number of projects. In this article, I will share with you my personal experience preparing tender documents for a donor funded project and the lessons learnt.

1. Making acquaintance with the detailed design

When this assignment landed on my desk, I was reviewing a variation order for an ongoing construction contract. I had to adjust my schedule of work to accommodate this new task. Fortunately, I had visited the site for this project during a previous reconnaissance tour but I had to re-acquaint myself with the detailed design report to ensure that the tender documents captured the required scope of work which the employer intended to build.

My review of the detailed design report enabled me comprehend the scope of work, its complexity, the cost and the duration of the construction works envisaged and most importantly, the minimum resources required of the successful contractor to deliver the project to the satisfaction of the employer.

My review of the detailed design report enabled me comprehend the scope of work, its complexity, the cost and the duration of the construction works envisaged and most importantly, the minimum resources required of the successful contractor to deliver the project to the satisfaction of the employer.

2. The procurement guidelines of the financing agency

As I proceeded with my task, I recalled from an earlier experience that tender documents for donor funded projects must be prepared in accordance with the procurement guidelines of the financing (donor) agency. I spent two days reading and understanding the appropriate guidelines of the donor.

As I proceeded with my task, I recalled from an earlier experience that tender documents for donor funded projects must be prepared in accordance with the procurement guidelines of the financing (donor) agency. I spent two days reading and understanding the appropriate guidelines of the donor.

It became very clear to me that the tender documents were to be prepared in four separate volumes and prior approval was required from the donor agency before the tender could be announced to the public. The tender documents to be prepared were;

1. Volume 1 – Instructions to Bidders
2. Volume 2 – Bills of Quantities
3. Volume 3 – Technical Specifications
4. Volume 4 – Books of Drawings

3. My approach to the preparation of the tender documents

The Bills of Quantities

When a tender is announced, interested bidders are usually provided with a hard copy of the volumes (documents) indicated above. In regard to the Bills of Quantities (volume 2), a soft copy version of the bills of quantities is usually provided to the bidders in a standard Microsoft Excel format to simplify the input of rates for the various bill items. In view of this, the soft copy must be consistent with the hard copy.

The detailed design report comprised draft bills of quantities in hard copy as well as in Microsoft Excel format. They comprised about seven individual bills; each corresponding to the packages of work within the overall scope. The bills of quantities comprised approximately 400 pages of standard A4 size sheets.

For each package of work, I checked each bill thoroughly to ensure that the hard and soft copy of the document were consistent i.e. checking for uniformity in the item descriptions of the scope of work, as well as the quantities applied to the various bill items. As the task unfolded, it got too mundane and monotonous that I had to take breaks to keep myself alert.

For each package of work, I checked each bill thoroughly to ensure that the hard and soft copy of the document were consistent i.e. checking for uniformity in the item descriptions of the scope of work as well as the quantities applied to the various bill items. As the task unfolded, it got too mundane and monotonous that I had to take breaks to keep myself alert

Figure 1: An extract of the Bill of Quantities

Finally, a grand summary sheet and a preamble were developed at the end of the task. The preamble was mainly developed to assist bidders price the bills of quantities.

The Book of Drawings

To complement the bills of quantities, detailed drawings (prepared at the detailed design stage) were assembled to accompany each individual bill in the bills of quantities. The detailed drawings (volume 4) provided a pictorial impression of the civil works infrastructure to be built, the layout of all electromechanical installations and structural drawings provided as supplementary information. The drawings (plans, sections and elevations) were put together and produced in A3 format. The entire book of drawings (which was eventually split into three parts) comprised 800 pages.

Under my supervision, I engaged another member of the project implementation unit to check whether each bill was adequately and appropriately cross referenced to the required drawings. Prior to the commencement of the task, I had to brief the team member about the scope of work involved; otherwise he would not be able to proceed.

Instructions to Bidders

As the preparation of the book of drawings went on, I commenced the preparation of the instructions to bidders (volume 1) in accordance with the procurement guidelines of the financing agency. The instructions to bidders comprised pricing information, scheduled dates for the pre-bid meeting, the bid submission and bid opening dates among others. It was also clearly indicated in the instructions to bidders that this tender was to be carried out using the international competitive bidding process.

To enable interested bidders comprehend the requirements for qualification, I developed (with the assistance of the procurement guidelines) an eligibility and qualification criteria. It required eligible bidders to demonstrate that they have a sound financial position, and the necessary general and specific construction experience for the scope of works. The instruction to bidders also comprised a section which briefly detailed the scope of works to be built.

This tender was prepared as a standard FIDIC Red book contract which comprised general contract conditions, particular conditions (parts of the general conditions adjusted to suit certain requirements of the employer). The document was also prepared to include the general conditions for the constitution and implementation of a Dispute Adjudication Board.

The Book of Specifications

Broken down into 10 individual sections, the book of specifications (volume 3) was prepared and assembled into a document with approximately 300 pages in A4 paper size format. The various sections of the specifications comprised the following;

1. A detailed description of the scope of works to be built, how the project was intended to operate and function in individual components, and as a whole.
2. The recommended procedures for testing all civil structures and electromechanical installations.
3. The procedures to be followed for training the scheme operators of the newly constructed and refurbished system.
4. The construction standards to be followed.
5. The requirements of the employer and the supervising consultant.

4. Formal submission and request for approval from the financing agency.

The documents (in four volumes) were submitted to the financing agency in hard and soft copy. It took us (the project implementation unit) about three weeks to obtain clearance from the financing agency after a series of correspondences and amendments to the documents.

5. The tender announcement

The tender was announced in the leading local newspapers and on DG Market (the online procurement website) that had been recommended by the financing agency.

The key information captured in the tender announcement was the project name, the name of the employer, the financing agency, the bidding procedures to be followed, the construction period, the scope of work, the eligibility and qualification requirements of interested bidders, and the price of the tender documents. In order for bidders to access the tender documents, they were required to part with US $400.

The procedure for payment of the required fees, where to pick documents, the date of the pre-bid meeting and the time and place to submit the bids were all indicated in the tender announcement.

6. Lessons learnt

1. The tender period (time from tender announcement to bid submission) for this construction project was fixed at eight weeks. This was determined after estimating the time it would take for the employer to successfully conduct the pre-bid meeting, and to respond to queries from interested bidders. We also considered that eight weeks was sufficient time for the bidders to receive our responses to their queries and prepare their submissions.

2. Prior to the bid submission date, bidders will usually write to the employer requesting for clarification on a number of issues. The type of questions that you will receive are a test of how well your document was prepared. In certain cases, entities are required to issue fresh documents to bidders and subsequently extend the period of bid submission as a result. If a document is prepared poorly the tender process can at times be cancelled and done all over again.

3. At a pre-bid meeting (usually held within two weeks after the tender announcement), you must prepare yourself to answer questions from the bidders, otherwise you risk being caught off-guard; a feeling which can be quite embarrassing. In case you are not sure of how to respond to some of the bidders’ questions, you are allowed to respond at a later date.Fortunately, most procurement guidelines state that an employer is not obliged to respond to queries received from bidders after two weeks to the bid submission date.

4. We fixed the price for purchasing the tender documents at US $400. At some point, the financing agency considered our cost prohibitive and asked us to give reasons for fixing that price. Fortunately, we were able to demonstrate that the US $400 proposed by the employer adequately covered the cost of producing a single set of bidding documents and the cost of reproducing a replica document for each interested bidder.

5. The financing agency typically assigns a procurement expert to review the instructions to bidders and a technical specialist to review the rest of the tender documents. Their input provides good quality assurance before the tender goes public.

6. From my experience, there can never be a tender document which goes public without an error or inconsistency of some sort. As you respond to the various requests for clarification that arise during the tender process, you need to be aware that at contract signature and during implementation of the construction works, you will be bound by the general conditions of contract which indicate which of the four documents takes precedence over the other.

7. Certain employers prefer to outsource the production of tender documents to a specialist document company while others prefer to do this in-house. From my personal experience, there are pros and cons to each option but whatever choice you opt for, you need to ensure that the hard copies of the tender documents are thoroughly checked before they are given to bidders because there will most certainly have/contain errors.

Conclusion

After the bids were submitted to the employer, I proceeded to complete the technical review of the variation order which I was working on before I was asked to take on this task. Sometime in the future I will share with you my experience reviewing a contractor’s variation order.

We (The Builders’ Garage) have in-house capacity to assist in the preparation and/or review of tender documents prior to the announcement of a tender for construction works and we are willing to work with your project implementation teams wherever they may be.

©. The Builders’ Garage 2017. Permission to use this article or quotations from it is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to thebuildersgarage.com as the source.

Follow The Builders’ Garage on Facebook , like our page to receive updates and leave us a comment

Follow (connect with) the writer (Cyrus Titus Aomu) on LinkedIn