MRED Speaker Series: Tendering and Award of Construction Projects

UTAR Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) conducted a virtual talk titled “Tendering and Award of Construction Project” via Microsoft Teams on 19 July 2020.

Invited to deliver the talk was Sr Chan Theng Chiok, an experienced quantity surveyor and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia. In his 41 years of experience in the construction industry, he has been involved in many major public and private property development and construction projects.

During the talk, Sr Chan presented and discussed the samples of tender documents comprising of items such as amendments to contract forms, special notes and instructions to tenderers, condition of tending and form of tender. He pointed out some important parts to take concern and advised, “You should highlight to tenderers on the changes made. However, try to minimise the amendments on the contract forms and focus on the purpose. If you make major changes, you may change the whole idea of the contract.” He then further explained the tender processes and discussed suitable main headings for award letters.

He explained that there were seven types of tendering procedures and choosing the suitable type depends on the scope of work and several other reasons. Among the seven types were quotation, open tendering, selective tendering, negotiated tendering, serial tendering, framework tendering, and single-stage or two-stage tendering. “The most common type of tendering and the preferred method is selective tendering, a pre-selected list of possible tenderers known by their past track record,” he said.

Furthermore, he illustrated the standard forms of building contracts used in Malaysia for the public and the private sectors. He also explained that JKR 203 suite of contract form is used for public sector works while PAM 2018 suite of contract form, CIDB suit of contract form and the international form are commonly applied to works of private sectors. He also noted that the Malaysian forms were currently being rewritten into “simple English” by 2030. Before the talk ended, a Q&A session was conducted to give the participants an opportunity to raise their questions and feedback.

Sr Chan explaining how the tendering process works