The invitation to bid/request for expression of interest and the draft bidding documents are usually prepared by the organization's procurement office or the bids and awards committee (BAC) upon receipt of the finalized terms of reference (TOR). Where a prior shortlisting of interested firms is required, a request for expression of interest is prepared, not an invitation to bid. Where shortlisting has been done, the bidding document is prepared.
At this stage, the type of bidding document to prepare (whether for procurement of goods, infrastructure services, consulting services, or any other form of services) and the mode of procurement to utilize (whether through competitive bidding, shopping, direct contracting, or any other alternative method) are first confirmed through the approved procurement plan (APP) and the approved purchase request as earlier described. Once it is confirmed that the proposed procurement is provided for in the APP and it has a corresponding approved purchase request, the procurement office picks the appropriate template from among the Philippine bidding documents (PBD) of the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB), or customizes one where needed. Where a template is used, bear in mind that the decision to provide the specifics that are called for in the bid data sheet, special conditions of contract, and other sections of the bidding documents that are allowed to be modified remains with the procuring agency.
The draft bidding document for this type of public-private partnership (PPP) in hospital management could be drawn from GPPB's PBD for consulting services. Customization could be made once the TOR has been finalized, particularly the selection criteria and rating system, terms of payment, and the manner by which award would be made. The procurement process requires a prior eligibility check of interested bidders for shortlisting purposes and a short list of five will be selected from among those who expressed interest. The bidding documents will only be issued to the shortlisted consultants.
Ideally, the bidding documents should be prepared by a group of individuals from the BAC, the technical working group, BAC secretariat, end users, and technical experts. As a rule, the bidding document should be finalized before the advertisement of the invitation to bid/request for expression of interest.