3.5.3  Qualifying Bidders

The next step may be to carry out a bidder pre-qualification process, to select the companies and consortia that will be invited to submit proposals. Not all countries select qualified bidders in advance, instead assessing qualifications as part of an open bidding process. The pros and cons the two approaches are described in Section 3.5.3: Qualifying Bidders.

This section describes the pre-qualification process. This process consists of preparing and issuing the Request for Qualifications (RFQ)-along with advertising the launch of the tender process, as described in Section 3.5.2: Marketing the PPP-and evaluating the information received to select a group of qualified bidders.

Farquharson et al [#95, pages 113-120] describes the purpose of pre-qualification, typical types of criteria and processes, and provides brief guidance on project launch. The EPEC Guide to Guidance [#83, page 27-28] also provides a helpful overview of the pre-qualification process.