Feedback in competitive fee tendering

Competitive fee tendering is gaining popularity in the construction industry as a mechanism for allocating consultancy work to architects, engineers and surveyors. It appears though that many construction industry clients are not fulfilling their responsibilities in providing their tendering consultants with sufficient tendering feedback information. This paper compares the amount of feedback that consultants are receiving from clients with the level of feedback information that consultants want from clients and seeks opinion on whether consultants would welcome certain major public sector clients publishing consultancy award details. A questionnaire sent to Hong Kong quantity surveying consultants reveals that 89% of consultancy work is allocated through competitive fee tendering. Although the majority of consultants keep systematic records of bid data, only two major Hong Kong construction clients are providing these consultants with detailed feedback information. The vast majority of consultants want information on the number of competing consultants (at the time of issuing tender documents) and identity of the successful consultant and corresponding fee and technical quality score plus the corresponding fee and technical quality scores of all the unsuccessful consultants (after award of contract). Opinion is almost equally divided on whether major public sector clients should publish consultancy award details. In addition to the job by job feedback, the vast majority of consultants would also like regular clients of the construction industry to provide them, on a periodic basis, with consolidated tender feedback information in the form of summary statistics.