Study on the evaluation of contractor selection criteria in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Selecting, and appropriate construction contractor is a major decision that may influence the progress and decide the success or failure of any construction project. One of the most important phases in the construction industry is the bidding process. In Sri Lanka most of the construction projects were not completed on time and the variation is very high. This study analyses the contractor selection criteria used to evaluate the qualification of contractors in Sri Lanka. in Sri Lanka, Contractor selection criteria for all project need to be prepared based on National Procurement Agency (NPA) Guideline, further NPA has defined contractor selection criteria and evaluation procedure but it needs some improvement. Further for ‘Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) NPA expect a minimum of three members and one should be a subject specialist. The whole decision of TEC depends on one person's decision other member having no or less knowledge. It creates an opportunity for corrosion. ‘Therefore it is important to include two or more subject specialist in a TEC; further evaluators need continuous training and knowledge upliftment. Further for Contractor upgrading system is available in Sri Lanka and it handled by CIDA (ICTAD) but there is no such system for the evaluator, it compulsory to introduce evaluators upgrading system to evaluate the different values of the project by considering the complexity of the project. As per the NPA qualification of bidders need to check first among them lowest bidder need to be selected. But currently in practice evaluators select the lowest bidder first then check their qualification, further selected low coated bidders are Strule to the completed project scope. In the final stage of bid, evaluation needs to check post-qualification of bidder before awarding but most of the evaluator fails to check post qualification it is also one of the reason project failure. Further Transparency needs to be maintained and awarding the decision needs to be communicated with the unsuccessful bidder it is commonly not followed. Quality requirement and safety requirement are given less importance during the contractor selection in Sri Lanka but these criteria are given top preference in other countries like Luthuminiya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabiya, and UK.