A guidebook on public-private partnership in infrastructure

Evaluation and selection of preferred bidder 
A tender evaluation committee conducts a fair objective evaluation of the 
tenders received from the bidders following the criteria which were made known to 
the bidders in the first stage of tendering (RFP) and at the EOI stage. In the process 
of evaluation, the committee may require and ask for clarifications from the bidders. 
Generally, the tenders that do not meet the specified requirements (termed as “non-
responsive”) are excluded from the evaluation process. 
The evaluation committee selects the preferred bidder and makes its 
recommendations to the concerned approving authority. For the sake of 
transparency in the process, the members of the evaluation committee can be asked 

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A Guidebook on Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure
 
 

to declare that they do not have any conflict between their personal or family 

interests and those of the project. 
Contract negotiation, award and financial close 
The successful bidder is notified of the award after the approval of the 
government. The implementing agency negotiates the final contract document (not 
the basic terms but details of implementation arrangements such as establishing 
dates, identifying the relevant authorities/officials on both sides and other relevant 
matters of contract management) with the successful bidder.
After the end of the contract negotiation and after agreeing on the contract 
document, both parties (the selected bidder and the implementing agency) sign the 
contract. Signing of the contract is the last task of the procurement process. 
Thereafter, the selected bidder is allowed sufficient time to finalise and 
complete all agreements with other parties. The bidder enters into agreements with 
the lender(s), sub-contractors and other parties within a given time period and brings 
the deal to financial closure.
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Depending on the complexity and size of the project, 
several months may be required for a project to come to financial close after the 
contract award is made. 
Financial close marks the end of the project development phase. The bidder 
notifies the implementing agency of the financial close and submits copies of the 
agreements with the lenders and other parties as required in the contract agreement.