Client and contractor attitudes to prequalification

his research is concerned with identifying prequalification criteria that both clients and contractors believe are good indicators of future construction performance. Criteria used in the past have been developed in a largely idiosyncratic manner with little or no consultation with the contractors affected. As a result, contractors are faced with a variety of calls for information by prequalifiers, the collection of which can be quite costly. This is leading to expensive duplication of effort by contractors in providing what is often similar information but in different formats. Furthermore, previous research has shown that the benefit of the information to prequalifiers is uncertain: many prequalifiers analyse the information in only a cursory manner. What is needed is some form of analysis to be carried out which will establish a common set of criteria for all to use. This research compares the different attitudes of both prequalifiers and contractors to prequalification criteria commonly in use in the Australian building industry. The purpose is to discover if those differences reduce the effectiveness of prequalification. This was carried out via a postal questionnaire involving 49 contractors and 15 prequalifiers across Australia. The results show that clients and contractors have divergent opinions on the importance of some criteria currently in use. The possible reasons for these differences are discussed and the most important prequalification criteria are identified.