Assessing Qualitative Criteria in HDB Eating House Tenders and Improving Transparency Through Detailed Tender Assessment Information

Ms Gho Sze Kee asked the Minister for National Development in respect of HDB's price-quality method for eating house tenders (a) how are qualitative criteria assessed, including the benchmarks used, assessors involved and measures to ensure consistency across tenders; and (b) whether HDB will consider publishing more detailed tender assessment information, including the breakdown of scores awarded under each criterion.

Mr Chee Hong Tat: Under the Housing and Development Board's (HDB's) Price-Quality Method for eating house tenders, t he quality component includes tenderers' business concept, operations, productivity, track record and community-centric initiatives. For each sub-component, the scoring weightage and criteria are published in the tender documents. To ensure consistency across tenders, a standing panel of HDB officers evaluates submissions against a common scoring rubric.

HDB does not publish the breakdown of scores by criterion, to encourage tenderers to put forth their best proposals rather than focus narrowly on specific criteria. The quality component is intended to assess proposals holistically across multiple factors, and HDB therefore publishes the overall scores of all tenderers and anonymised tender prices received, rather than the detailed scoring breakdown.