Ethics-Related Issues in the Tender Evaluation of Malaysia Public Projects

Abstract

Ethical practice is usually addressed in the forms of code of conduct, rules and regulations, agreement, and contract. There is a lack of empirical studies on ethical issues involving contractors during tender application submission. Therefore, to begin with, a preliminary research was conducted in an attempt to explore the presence of ethical issues at tendering stage, particularly at the beginning of the tender evaluation stage. The research methodology was qualitative as telephone interviews were used for its data collection method. The participants were selected from a purposive sampling consisting of local authorities and other agencies. Seventy-five percent of the participants claimed of having come across unethical cases. Surprisingly, the findings showed that falsifications of documents by the tenderers were identified during the tender application submission stage. It was also found that the lower grade contractors are prone to practise unethically compared to the higher-grade counterparts. The industry should seriously address these findings as it could possibly reduce the competitiveness of tenders and affect the overall project performance. This research is crucial in order to suggest the way forward for tendering practice, instil the ethical practice of the contractors, assist tender evaluators, and most importantly, elevate the study in refining the tender submission process.

A Preliminary Framework for Preventing Disputes in Different Stages of Building Construction Projects

“…It is important to highlight that the results regarding the causes of disputes during the planning stage consistently align with the findings from a previous study. This earlier study suggests that the implementation of a rigorous tendering procedure is essential to foster ethical conduct among contractors (Ismail et al, 2017). Emphasising the significance of ethical conduct, especially during the planning stage and particularly within the tendering process, is crucial.…”

Examining Corruption Issues in Malaysia Construction Industry: Partaker Perspectives

“…Nonetheless, most of the issues in corruption is focused at the procurement phase of a construction project development. There are several publications (Ismail et al, 2017;Lane, 2017;OECD, 2016;Transparency International, 2018) that emphasised the procurement phase to ethical and corruption issues. This may be due to complex public procurement procedures and lack of transparency in many countries, and that manipulation is hard to detect (Kuhn & Sherman, 2014).…”