Run a tender under the AS 4120 code of tendering

Build the invitation list from capability, current capacity, licence and insurance rather than from the last job's list, and keep it short enough that every name on it has a real chance. Record why each candidate is in or out.

Яагаад: The code asks a principal to invite only tenderers it is prepared to accept, and the reason is economic rather than moral. A tender costs a builder real money to price, so a list of eight where two were ever in contention teaches the market to load the price or to decline the next invitation, and the principal pays for it either way.

Issue the same documents to every tenderer at the same time: the drawings and their revisions, the bill, the conditions of contract with the Annexure filled in, and the conditions of tendering, including the closing time and place, whether alternative tenders are accepted and on what terms, and how long the offer must stand open.

Яагаад: Everything the code protects flows from every tenderer pricing the same document. A revision that reached three of five is not a documentation slip, it is an unequal tender, and the only honest remedy once it is discovered is to extend the period for everyone and pay for the time.

Log every question in the correspondence register as it arrives, answer it as a numbered addendum issued to all tenderers, and never answer a substantive question by telephone. Where an answer changes the scope late in the period, extend the closing time rather than assume the tenderers can absorb it.

Яагаад: The tenderer who asks the good question is the one who read the documents properly, and answering only them rewards the reading by handing the answer to nobody else. The code calls that unequal information, and a losing tenderer who finds out about it has a complaint that survives the award.

Take the tenders in without opening them, record the time each one arrived, and open them together after the close. Deal with a late tender under the rule the conditions of tendering stated, before you know what it says.

Яагаад: A tender opened early is a price that can be repeated to somebody else, and the code treats the confidentiality of a submitted offer as absolute. The rule about late tenders has to be applied blind for the same reason: a decision made after reading the number is a decision about the number.

Compare the conforming tenders against each other first, item by item, and clear up an ambiguity by asking that tenderer what it means rather than by adjusting their price yourself. Assess an alternative tender separately, on what it changes and what it is worth, and only where the conditions of tendering allowed one.

Яагаад: Mixing an alternative into the conforming comparison compares two different buildings on price, which is how a cheaper offer wins by leaving something out. Clarification is allowed and correction is not, and the line between them is whether the tenderer or the assessor decided what the price now means.

Put the recommendation through the approval route that has the authority to commit the money, with the levelled comparison attached, and advise the unsuccessful tenderers once it is decided. Do not take the lowest price back to the others to be beaten.

Яагаад: Using one tender to move another is the practice the code exists to stop, and it is self defeating over a market as small as Australian construction: the builders find out, and the discount is recovered on the first variation of the job you just shopped. An approval with the comparison attached is also the only durable answer to the question of why this builder was chosen.