Responsiveness of Contractors' Bids for Public Construction Projects in Nigeria

Abstract

Many construction firms in Nigeria are folding-up due to unsuccessful tendering consequent upon noncompliance with the bid solicitation requirements. Reversal of this ugly trend is imperative for the country to achieve sustainable development in construction. Hence, the main aim of this study was to examine the tenders submitted by contractors in competition for public construction projects in Nigeria with a view to determining their compliance with the bids' solicitation notice requirements – responsiveness and the deficient parts of the tenders needing the bidders' attention for compliance. Towards this end, primary data were collected through two sets of questionnaires. The first set were administered through email (due to ravaging covid-19 pandemic) on chief executive officers/managing directors (CEO/MD) of a sample of sixty-three (63) construction companies selected randomly from eighty-five (85) members of the full membership category in the register of Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI) (FOCI, 2019). The second set were administered on the principal partners of a sample of one hundred and eighteen (118) quantity surveying firms that were responsible for the evaluation of the contractors' tenders submitted in competition for construction projects across the country. The quantity surveying firms were selected from threehundred and eighty-eight (388) members on the list of registered firms in the register of Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) (QSRBN, 2019) using systematic random sampling technique. The data obtained were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics such as means, percentages, mean item score (MIS) and t-test. IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was employed for the analysis. The results revealed that the responsiveness of tenders submitted by the contractors in competition for construction works in Nigeria are 36% corporately (as business entity) and 38% competitively among other contractors. The result further revealed that the tenders are not entirely compliant with the clients' tenders' requirements due to frequent violation of bid submittal requirements (MIS = 4.3), payment of VAT and tax (MIS = 4.1), compliance with staff retirement scheme (MIS = 3.9), signing of price bid form and price schedule (MIS= 3.6) and eligibility requirements (MIS= 3.6). The paper concluded that the submitted tenders are poorly responsive to the tender requirements of the clients.