$8.2 Billion from the President’s Investing in America Agenda to Deliver Transformative Passenger Rail in America President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda – a key pillar of Bidenomics – is delivering world class-infrastructure across the country, expanding access to economic opportunity, and creating good-paying jobs. By delivering $66 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law –…
Aren’t government jobs put out for tender and any company private or public can bid on them? They are required to take the lowest bid as well (so you don’t just give it to your buddy) but if your buddy is the lowest bid the only way to not take it would be to prove it couldn’t be done for that price.
Lowest qualified bidder. There is also a lot of play in the spec writing. If for example my employer has something our competition can’t offer they can push for the spec to include it. For example I came up with a standy-by power mode with one of our systems that saves utility costs. Pretty proud of it. Sometimes the sales guys can convince the government to require that in the scope.
I don’t like that because lowest bid can often be lowest quality, plus it’s not like they only pay the lowest bid up to that bid and then move on to the next lowest bidder if the lowest bid goes over budget. The bidding system kinda sucks in all aspects.
Like if one company put in a bid for a bridge at $12 million but their design would need to be replaced in 20 years and another put in a bid for a $20 million bridge that would last a century, would the better bridge or cheaper one be built?
It isn’t that simple. Standards are set and there are punishments governments can use if things aren’t followed. Your stuff broke early? You are banned from bidding in this area for the next decade. Project is delayed? We are paying you 80% of what is agreed upon. You are constantly causing problems? We will write a spec that is so specific to your main competitor that you can’t possibly meet it.
The system is not perfect but it isnt as bad as people might think.
The spec is allowed to require a certain level of quality. So the job could require a 100-year lifetime. You write it so that the bridge is as quality as you want and then take who can do that quality for the lowest amount.
A lot of newer contracts are design-build, where the Contractor is given a design that is conceptual and the Contractor has to finish the design and build it. Because the design is partially done by the Contractor, the contract is usually won by a combination of price and rating based on technical merit.
Aren’t government jobs put out for tender and any company private or public can bid on them? They are required to take the lowest bid as well (so you don’t just give it to your buddy) but if your buddy is the lowest bid the only way to not take it would be to prove it couldn’t be done for that price.
Lowest qualified bidder. There is also a lot of play in the spec writing. If for example my employer has something our competition can’t offer they can push for the spec to include it. For example I came up with a standy-by power mode with one of our systems that saves utility costs. Pretty proud of it. Sometimes the sales guys can convince the government to require that in the scope.
I don’t like that because lowest bid can often be lowest quality, plus it’s not like they only pay the lowest bid up to that bid and then move on to the next lowest bidder if the lowest bid goes over budget. The bidding system kinda sucks in all aspects.
Like if one company put in a bid for a bridge at $12 million but their design would need to be replaced in 20 years and another put in a bid for a $20 million bridge that would last a century, would the better bridge or cheaper one be built?
It isn’t that simple. Standards are set and there are punishments governments can use if things aren’t followed. Your stuff broke early? You are banned from bidding in this area for the next decade. Project is delayed? We are paying you 80% of what is agreed upon. You are constantly causing problems? We will write a spec that is so specific to your main competitor that you can’t possibly meet it.
The system is not perfect but it isnt as bad as people might think.
The spec is allowed to require a certain level of quality. So the job could require a 100-year lifetime. You write it so that the bridge is as quality as you want and then take who can do that quality for the lowest amount.
It is becoming a lot more complicated than that.
A lot of newer contracts are design-build, where the Contractor is given a design that is conceptual and the Contractor has to finish the design and build it. Because the design is partially done by the Contractor, the contract is usually won by a combination of price and rating based on technical merit.