Analysis of Criteria Influencing Contractor Selection Using TOPSIS Method

Abstract

Selection of the most suitable contractor is an important process in public construction projects. This process is a major decision which may influence the progress and success of a construction project. Improper selection of contractors may lead to problems such as bad quality of work and delay in project duration. Especially in the construction projects of public buildings, the proper choice of contractor is beneficial to the public institution. Public procurement processes have different characteristics in respect to dissimilarities in political, social and economic features of every country. In Turkey, Turkish Public Procurement Law PPL 4734 is the main regulatory law for the procurement of the public buildings. According to the PPL 4734, public construction administrators have to contract with the lowest bidder who has the minimum requirements according to the criteria in prequalification process. Public administrators are not sufficient for selection of the proper contractor because of the restrictive provisions of the PPL 4734. The lowest bid method does not enable public construction administrators to select the most qualified contractor and they have realised the fact that the selection of a contractor based on lowest bid alone is inadequate and may lead to the failure of the project in terms of time delay Eand poor quality standards. In order to evaluate the overall efficiency of a project, it is necessary to identify selection criteria. This study aims to focus on identify importance of other criteria besides lowest bid criterion in contractor selection process of PPL 4734. In this study, a survey was conducted to staff of Department of Construction Works of Eskisehir Osmangazi University. According to TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution) for analysis results, termination of construction work in previous tenders is the most important criterion of 12 determined criteria. The lowest bid criterion is ranked in rank 5.