International Construction Law Review

Chantal-Aimée Doerries KC; Professor Douglas Jones AO

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OPENING AND EVALUATING TENDERS UNDER SAUDI PROCUREMENT REGULATIONS*

IBRAHIM ALHUDAITHY

Legal Adviser and Head of Contract Section, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

1. INTRODUCTION

When a contracting authority contracts with a private firm for the supply of goods or construction or to provide a service, their interests become intertwined. Thus, although the aim of the firm is to achieve a monetary interest, it becomes a partner with the public authority in the performance of a public function. The obligation of the public authority to follow a competitive tendering procedure before awarding the contract helps the authority to obtain the best value for money. On the other hand, it encourages the private firm to develop its technical and financial ability in order to be able to compete. In addition, competitive tendering is preferred in most procurement regulations as the mechanism for awarding the contract. It is one of the best ways for the contracting authority to obtain the cheapest price.

In this area of law, the lawmakers took into account both the public interest to reduce the price of tenders and obtain as much as possible at a good price, and the interest of the private party in gaining the highest profits possible. Therefore, they drew a balance between the conflicting interests and enacted award criteria and conditions of contract to safeguard the interests of both parties, through transparency and equal treatment principles.

Once the tenders have been submitted, the contracting authority is required to evaluate them and decide which one is preferable to the authority.

In practice, there are several initial steps that the contracting authority should take before the evaluation process. Opening tenders and announcing all prices in the presence of all bidders and writing a report regarding the tenders received are some examples. After these preliminary steps, the authority must evaluate all tenders and select one of them to be the contractor.

This article will investigate the procedures for the opening of tenders in the first part, and the procedures for evaluating tenders in the second part.

*The author wishes to express his deep thanks and gratitude to his supervisor, Professor Ian Leigh, for his constructive comments on this article.

[2004

The International Construction Law Review

460

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