Evaluating the decision to bid

A common rule of thumb states that the cost to develop a bid price and submit a proposal is approximately 0.25 per cent of the total bid price. That cost is only recovered if the contractor is awarded the job. Therefore, contractors take significant care before making the decision to bid on a large infrastructure project. Apart from obvious financial considerations, the decision involves many other elements, which project proponents too often fail to address. This paper examines some of these elements and advocates their consideration by both contractor and employer, in engineering, environmental and social aspects of project preparation and procurement.