International Construction Law Review
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PRICE-QUALITY METHOD IN SINGAPORE, HONG KONG, THE UNITED KINGDOM AND NEW ZEALAND
LOW SUI PHENG
Department of Building National University of Singapore
JOHN BARBER
Centre of Construction Law & Management King’s College London
PAULINE S P ANG
Department of Building National University of Singapore
I. ABSTRACT
Although price-quality evaluation methods are already being practised widely in many countries, the Price-Quality Method (PQM) was only introduced formally in Singapore in September 2005. This paper aims to study the management, procurement, regulatory and legal framework within which the PQM operates, so as to assess the adequacy of the current PQM model in Singapore, and to look into ways to fine-tune the system to achieve better value for money. This involves a comparative study of price-quality methods in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and New Zealand to assist in developing best practices in tendering. The study recommends that the relevant authorities produce detailed guidelines to define the ideal price-quality ratios to be used for different types of projects, the quality criteria to be used and the weighting of each quality criterion. Other recommendations include the imposition of mandatory passing marks for individual quality criteria; production of a standard benchmark scoring method to prevent inconsistent scoring and guidelines on the composition of evaluation team members to ensure that they are qualified and the procedural rules adopted are fair.
Keywords:
Price-Quality method, Tender, Award, Local Authorities, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, New Zealand.
Pt 3]
Comparative Study of the Price-Quality Method
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