The Anhui Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently issued the Notice on Carrying Out a Special Inspection for the Rectification of Abnormally Low Bids in Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects. The special inspection will target housing construction, rail transit, and municipal infrastructure projects that have been opened for bidding since January 1, 2021 and that should adopt the bill of quantities method for tendering.

This special rectification focuses on inspecting four aspects.

First, policy formulation. Whether the public resource trading regulatory authorities of each city have, in accordance with the requirements of the Notice on Further Standardizing Bidding Activities for Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects (Jianshi Han [2020] No. 1073), formulated and issued local implementation opinions and detailed rules.

Second, the determination of tender control prices. 1. Whether the preparation of the bill of quantities control price for the tendered project complies with the relevant provisions of the Anhui Provincial Construction Project Cost Management Regulations, the bill of quantities valuation code, and the valuation quotas; 2. Whether the bill of quantities control price for the tendered project has been filed for record as required; 3. Whether the unit preparing the bill of quantities control price for the tendered project has the corresponding qualifications and whether the signatures and seals on the delivered outcome documents are complete; 4. Whether the unit preparing the bill of quantities control price for the tendered project has arbitrarily lowered the control price or lowered it upon instruction.

Third, the review of abnormally low bids. 1. If the quoted price of the proposed winning candidate is abnormally low, whether the bid evaluation committee required the bidder to provide clarification or explanation within a reasonable period before recommendation; 2. For winning candidates with abnormally low bids that have passed the review, whether the bid evaluation committee comprehensively assessed the risks of contract performance and project quality and safety, and submitted such assessment as an attachment to the bid evaluation results to the tenderee.

Fourth, project award. 1. Whether the winning bidder's quoted price is abnormally low; 2. Whether a winning bidder with an abnormally low bid has provided, within a reasonable period, clarification materials proving its contract performance capability and the absence of project quality and safety risks; 3. Whether there are circumstances of collusive bidding as specified in Articles 39, 40, and 41 of the Implementation Regulations of the Bidding Law; 4. Whether bid evaluation experts have engaged in illegal or non-compliant acts such as privately contacting bidders, accepting benefits from interested parties to provide convenience for them, accepting instructions to conduct unfair bid evaluation, or failing to propose rejection opinions for bids that should be rejected according to law.

The notice requires that before the end of June 2021, relevant departments in each city conduct self-inspection and rectification at a proportion of no less than 20%. Starting from July 1, 2021, the Anhui Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will conduct provincial-level spot checks at a proportion of no less than 2%, and the results of the provincial spot checks and any illegal or non-compliant issues discovered will be circulated throughout the province.