3.2.15 An evaluation committee should be set up to evaluate the competence of the interested suppliers. The evaluation committee will evaluate all the applications received based on the evaluation criteria set forth in the Invite Expression of Interest notice. To ensure that the evaluation is done in a fair, open and transparent manner, the evaluation team members must declare any conflict of interest, directly or indirectly possessed and, on this basis, discontinue their involvement in the evaluation committee.
3.2.16 The PPP advisor may help furnish inputs to the Evaluation Committee on the evaluation of the responses to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. However, the final recommendation as to which bidders to be pre-qualified should be made by the Evaluation Committee before submission to the approving authority. Given the complexity in PPP projects, public agencies can consider appointing the Tenders Approving Authority as the authority to approve the list of prequalified bidders.
3.2.17 After the prequalification stage, the GPE will have prequalified a list of suppliers who pass the evaluation criteria set forth in the Invite (EOI) notice.
3.2.18 The following general guidelines must be applied in the recommendation and approval of applications for short listing:
a) the selection process is conducted fairly; and
b) all the suppliers that complied with the evaluation criteria in the Invite Expression of Interest notice shall be pre-qualified.
3.2.19 It is important that GPEs set their prequalification criteria carefully. GPEs must not have a pre-determined number to artificially limit the number of suppliers who can qualify for the Invitation to Tender stage, as this will limit competition by depriving suppliers who are capable of fulfilling the contract from tendering. Rather, GPEs should be clear about what it is they need in the potential PPP provider, and set the corresponding stringent pre-qualification criteria. The choice of pre-qualification criteria used must only be to ensure supplier's capability to fulfil the contract and not have a discriminatory effect.