The 'Shanghai Construction Project Bidding Management Measures' came into effect on the 1st.

With the rapid development of the economy, society, and the construction industry, project bidding has attracted increasing public attention. Intense competition has also led to undesirable phenomena such as exploiting policy loopholes and power rent-seeking, including false bidding, bid rigging, low-price bidding but high-price settlement, and lack of responsibility in bidding activities.

Pei Xiao, deputy director of the Shanghai Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission, introduced at a press briefing on the 1st that the management measures consist of six chapters and 56 articles, covering general provisions, bidding and tendering, bid opening, evaluation and award, supervision and management, legal liability, and supplementary provisions. Compared with the original policies, the new measures emphasize shifting government administrative departments from ex-ante supervision to in-process and ex-post supervision, highlight on-site spot checks, random inspections, and increased administrative enforcement, while optimizing the bidding process and shortening the bidding cycle.

The measures further clarify that the tenderee is responsible for the bidding activity, and implement the tenderee's primary responsibility by granting them the right to screen bidders and the right to review and clarify bid awards. It stipulates that the tenderee should establish a decision-making constraint system, which should be applied in qualification pre-review, bidder screening, and bid award. At the same time, by supplementing and refining provisions on situations where bidding is not required and bidder screening, it further enhances the transparency of bidding work; further improves the integrity system and strengthens the binding and accountability of bidders.

In addition, the measures grant the tenderee certain powers: first, pre-bid screening. It stipulates that for bidding using post-qualification, the tenderee may screen bidders and, based on objective factors such as credit and administrative penalties, select no fewer than 15 bidders to participate in the bid. Second, post-bid award power. When determining the winning bidder, the tenderee may either follow the ranking recommended by the bid evaluation committee or use review and clarification. If the first winning candidate refuses to clarify or cannot clarify, the tenderee may disqualify them and review other candidates in order to ultimately determine the winning bidder.

It is noteworthy that the new measures strengthen the identification and punishment of bid rigging. Pei Xiao said, "Bid rigging is relatively hidden and difficult to detect directly. The management measures clearly stipulate several situations that are deemed as bidders colluding in bidding. For example, bid documents prepared by different bidders contain more than two identical errors; different bidders use the same computer or the same encryption tool to prepare bid documents, etc."