Recent advances and proposed improvements in contractor prequalification methodologies

Contractor selection is a critical activity that plays a vital role in the overall success of any construction project. An initial cross-sectional survey indicates the wide range of different contractor selection practices followed by various clients around the globe with apparently little interaction or comparisons during their development. A focus on the prequalification approaches (taken here to include ‘registration’) followed by some major public clients in Hong Kong, Australia and USA leads to an interesting overview of recent advances. This focus also highlights some strengths and weaknesses at the critical front-end of the contractor selection process. A proposed new model is developed by the authors for construction contractor prequalification. Finally, the advantages of developing a client advisory decision support system for advising clients on contractor prequalification are discussed, on the basis of the perceived needs and potential knowledge bases that may be tapped for this purpose.