Detection Tool for Unbalanced Bids

Babak  Nikpour; Ahmed  Senouci; Neil  Eldin

doi:10.4236/ojce.2017.73028

Babak Nikpour¹, Ahmed Senouci², Neil Eldin²

Abstract: Unbalanced bidding is a cash flow management strategy that is recognized as an illegal/disqualifying practice by public owners; and unethical practice by most private owners. This practice provides the awarded bidder with unjustified advantages at the expense of the owner. Unfortunately, limited tools and techniques are currently available to identify and detect unbalanced bids during the evaluation process. This paper presents an innovative detection tool to identify unbalanced bids in unit price contracts during the bid evaluation process. The proposed technique develops BMDI graphs to visualize total markup variation patterns during the project lifetime to detect unbalanced bids. The proposed method also uses Monte Carlo simulation to take in consideration the impact of cost uncertainties and risks. An illustrative example was presented to show the capabilities and features of the proposed method in determining the status of submitted bids during the evaluation process.

Keywords: Unbalanced Bidding, Detection, Bid Evaluation, Construction Projects, Mon-te-Carlo Simulation

Cite this paper: Nikpour, B. , Senouci, A. and Eldin, N. (2017) Detection Tool for Unbalanced Bids. Open Journal of Civil Engineering, 7, 409-422. doi: 10.4236/ojce.2017.73028.

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