Evaluation of the Pre-Qualification Criteria and Use of Tender Document in the Award of Building Contracts in Federal Universities in North Central, Nigeria

Abstract

This study evaluates the implementation of pre-qualification criteria and the use of a tender document in the award of building contracts in Federal Universities in North Central, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The population for the study was 71 respondents which consist of 17 bureau of public procurement staff and 54 procuring entities in Federal Universities in North Central. The instrument used for data collection was a 17 items questionnaire with a four-point rating scale and has response options of Adequately Implemented (AI), Implemented (I), Not Implemented (NI) and Highly Not Implemented (HNI). To ensure the validity of the instrument it was subjected to content validity by three subject matter experts after which their suggestions and corrections were reflected on the final copy of the instrument that was used for data collection. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was established to be 0.86 using the Cronbach Alpha formula. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for answering research questions and t-test statistics for testing the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that building contractors in the Universities are not adequately pre-qualified and contractors documents are not tendered as spelt out in PPA of 2007. Based on the findings, it is therefore recommended that contractors in the building industry should aspire to understand the essence of tendering document in the award of building contracts and thereafter ensure that their document meet the requirement of every building contract provision before tendering such document for building contract bidding in the University.