MANAGING PREPARATION OF

REQUESTS FOR
PROPOSALS:
A QUANTITY SURVEYORS
OUTLOOK

The adoption of Act No 21 of

2004 (The Public Procurement
Act, replacing and repealing a
similar Act of 2001

Consultants have to be very

familiar with the Act and
Regulations made under the
Act for competitive responses
to RFPs

Some features of the Act and

Regulations wrt Consultants:

Act does not directly distinguish

btn Contractors, Consultants or
Suppliers (this done by Reglations)
Procuring Entity Staff may and
often feature in evaluation and
tender reporting

Fraud and

Appeals

Corruption

The RFP-Basic
features
1) Letter of Invitation
2) Information to
Consultants
(normally of a general
nature on the RFPincl.
dos and donts )
3) Standard Format for the

4) Standard Format for

the financial proposal
5) Terms of Referencespecifies general
requirements
6) Sample Form of
Contract

Responding to the RFP

Read all pages carefully-ask for yr own copy

Stick to one Architect for a given RFP
AND NOTE.
Two important parts:
Technical
Financial

The Technical Proposal

Consider and discuss main areas of

difficulty (e.g. excessive and
strenuous travels, extremely huge
volumes of reports
Establish your technical capabilities:
-Availability of staff/hiring possibilities
-Previous experience
-Consultants you may need

Organise all information required by

the Architect/Engineer:

Firms previous experience

Comments on TOR if any
Methodology (your component)
Staff composition and task assignments
CVs on acceptable format
Time schedules for Professionals
Activity schedules

The Financial Proposal

Breakdown of your remuneration per

activity and summary
Breakdown of Reimbursables
-Regular staff
-Local staff
-Consultants
-Office rent/staff salaries etc.
-Your other costs e.g. loss on other
proposals?

Financial Proposal contd.

Breakdown of Miscellaneous expenses

-Travel costs
-Subsistence allowances
-Office rent
-Phones and faxes etc.
-Equipment (vehicles/computers/copiers)
-Software

For discussion:
Special issues wrt to QS profession

Additional work reflecting in evaluation of loss

and expenses
Additional time in handling
disputes/negotiations
Additional travels for valuations where
verifications become necessary-extra travels
Measurement and valuing of variations
(depending on nature of project and variation)
And for all: Professional Indemnity issues wrt
RFPs?

How can this be handled?

Raise some of the issue in comments

to TOR
Your winning team makes a lay client
aware of what is at stake (e.g enter a
caveat-that drastic changes in future
will attract added fees)

Existential Contradiction:

Your competitor friend will deeply

sympathize with you if you submit
late of the submission is deficient

Existential contradiction contd

He/she will at the same time consider

him/herself lucky on the basis of your
misfortune

Dont avail him of this

opportunity!!!!

Thank you