GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

1.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan asked the Minister for National Development for each of the last three years (a) how many Government construction projects were put up for tender and what is the value of these projects; (b) how many of these projects were awarded to the lowest bidders; and (c) for successful bidders who were not the lowest bidders, what was the basis of the awards.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: 715 construction projects worth $4.1 billion were tendered in the Financial Year (FY) 2003 (ie, April 2003 to March 2004). There were 795 projects worth $8.0 billion in FY02 and 873 projects worth $7.0 billion in FY01. These did not include the M&E contracts.

63% of the projects in FY03 were awarded to the lowest bidders. It was 75% in both FY02 and FY01.

In cases where the tenders were not awarded to the lowest bidders, the main reasons were:

(a) There were doubts on their abilities to successfully complete the projects, based on their financial strength or their unrealistically low bids; or

(b) Their proposals did not meet the tender specifications, eg, their methods of construction were unacceptable or their designs were inappropriate.

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