The Comptroller-General’s Department is amending the Public Procurement and Supplies Administration Act to improve the quality of government-funded projects.
According to Patricia Mongkhonvanit, the department’s director-general, under the proposed amendments, if a bidder offers to undertake a government project at a price that is considered unreasonably low, the agency responsible for the project can reject the bid to safeguard the quality of the work.
“In fact, the current procurement law does not require agencies to accept the lowest bid. They can reject it. Everything is already provided for in the law. If the price is too low and, after consideration, the agency believes it does not represent good value or is significantly below a reasonable level, it can reject the bid,” she said.
However, not many agencies take this approach because they are afraid of being audited, said Mrs Patricia.
“We need to be aligned with the auditing agencies on this issue. We probably need to discuss with them how rejecting the lowest bid should be handled. To address this issue, we need to tell the auditing agencies they should consider multiple factors rather than looking only at the price. We need to establish clear criteria for this,” she said.
In addition, the government is considering introducing a new price-performance criterion for public construction projects.
Price-performance is a measure of the value delivered in relation to cost, assessing whether a product or service can provide the required quality, speed, features or other benefits at a reasonable price. A high price-performance rating means a product or service delivers strong performance relative to its cost.
For example, if the government wants to develop a particular system and needs to determine whether a bidder is actually capable of delivering it, the bidder could be required to produce a proof of concept or prototype. The proposal would then be assessed against specific criteria, with points awarded for each aspect.
In other words, there needs to be evidence the bidder’s proposed solution is technically feasible, said Mrs Patricia.
Regarding contractor performance assessments, the current system is largely punitive, with points deducted when contractors fail to meet specified requirements.
The government plans to introduce positive incentives by awarding discretionary points to contractors that perform well as a form of reward. For example, discretionary points could account for 5-10% of the total score, while the bidding component could account for around 90%.
“People have complained that there is no reward for doing a good job. Under the new system, there could be an additional X% in discretionary points. For example, if a contractor receives discretionary points and has never had any points deducted, they would receive the full amount,” she said.
Regarding the blacklisting of government contractors, which prevents them from undertaking government projects, the existing procedure requires the government agency responsible for a project to terminate the contract before the contractor can be placed on the blacklist.
In practice, however, some agencies are reluctant to terminate contracts because they may be unable to find a new contractor willing to take over the work at the stipulated price. To address this problem, the proposed amendment would allow a contractor to be blacklisted without first terminating the existing contract.
In other words, the contractor would be prohibited from taking on new government projects while remaining responsible for completing the existing contract.
In addition, the draft amendment establishes clearer criteria for appealing government tender decisions. In the past, there were several appeals that lacked sufficient grounds, resulting in projects being suspended until the appeals process was completed.
The proposal would require anyone wishing to appeal a tender decision to provide an appeal bond. The initial proposal sets the bond at one-third of the project value, although stakeholders have argued this is too high, and the government is considering their concerns, said Mrs Patricia.
If an appeal is found to be without merit, the appeal bond would be forfeited.
There have been roughly 160 appeals of construction tenders per month. In fiscal 2026, from Oct 1, 2025 to July 30, 2026, a total of 2,532 appeals were filed and 81% or 2,051 cases have been completed.