Measures for the Administration of Bidding for the Design of Construction Projects


Article 1 For the purposes of standardizing the design market of construction projects, improving the level of design of construction projects, promoting fair competition, and booming up architectural creation, these Measures are developed in accordance with the Construction Law of the People's Republic of China, the Bidding Law of the People's Republic of China, the Regulation on the Administration of Survey and Design of Construction Projects, the Regulation on the Implementation of the Bidding Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws and regulations.

Article 2 The bidding activities for the design of various housing construction projects for which bidding is required shall be governed by these Measures.

Article 3 The competent department of housing and urban-rural development under the State Council shall supervise the bidding activities for the design of construction projects across the country according to law.

The competent departments of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's governments at or above the county level shall supervise the bidding activities relating to the design of construction projects within their respective administrative regions and investigate the violations of laws and regulations in the bidding activities and punish the violators according to law.

Article 4 The scope and scale standards of bid invitation for the design of construction projects shall be governed by the relevant provisions of the state. Bid invitation is not required under any of the following circumstances:

(1) An irreplaceable patent or proprietary technology is adopted.

(2) There are special requirements for the art of architectural modeling and relevant competent department has granted approval thereto.

(3) The construction entity may legally conduct design on its own.

(4) The reconstruction, expansion or technological transformation of a construction project shall be designed by the original design entity, otherwise, it will affect the supporting functional requirements.

(5) Other special circumstances as prescribed by the state.

Article 5 Public bidding or invited bidding shall be legally conducted for a bid invitation for the design of a construction project.

Article 6 Bid invitation for the design scheme or bid invitation for the design team may be conducted for the bidding for the design of a construction project and the bid caller may make a choice according to the characteristics and practical needs of the project.

Bid invitation for a design scheme means determining the bid winner mainly by reviewing the design scheme submitted by a bidder.

Bid invitation for a design team means determining the bid winner mainly by reviewing the comprehensive capacity of the design team appointed by a bidder.

Article 7 Where public bidding is conducted, the bid caller shall issue a bid invitation announcement. Where invited bidding is conducted, the bid caller shall send invitations for bid to more than three potential bidders.

A bid invitation announcement or an invitation for bid shall specify the name and address of the bid caller, the basic requirements of the bid invitation project, the qualification requirements of the bidder, the way to obtain the bidding documents, etc.

Article 8 A bid caller shall generally jointly invite bids for the schematic design, preliminary design and design of construction drawing for a construction project. Where another design entity shall be selected to assume the preliminary design and design of construction drawing, it shall be specified in the bid invitation announcement or invitation to bid.

Article 9 General contracting shall be encouraged to for construction projects. Where general contracting is conducted, as agreed to by the contract or with the consent of the bid caller, the design entity is not required to subcontract the design of the non-primary part of a construction project through bid invitation.

Article 10 A bidding document shall meet the different needs of the bid invitation for a design scheme or design team, mainly including the following contents:

(1) the basic information on a project;

(2) the basic requirements of an urban plan and urban design for a project;

(3) the economic and technical requirements for a project;

(4) the relevant fundamental materials of a project;

(5) the contents of a bid invitation;

(6) the arrangements in a bidding document for questions and answers, and on-the-spot survey;

(7) the requirements for the development of a bidding document;

(8) the standards and methods for the bid evaluation;

(9) the service address and deadline for a bidding document;

(10) the time and place for bid opening;

(11) the main clauses of the contract planned to be concluded;

(12) the design fees or fees calculation method; and

(13) the methods for the compensation for the scheme that fails to win the bid.

Article 11 A bid caller shall specify in a qualification preliminary review announcement, bid invitation announcement or invitation to bid whether or not to accept a bid of a consortium. For a bid by a consortium, all parties of a consortium shall enter into a joint bidding agreement to specify and come to an agreement with regard to the work and responsibilities assumed by all parties and that all parties shall assume several and joint liabilities before the bid caller in a bid-winning project.

Article 12 A bid caller may make necessary clarifications of or modifications to the bidding documents that have been issued. Where the contents clarified or modified may affect the development of the bidding documents, the bid caller shall, at least 15 days before the deadline for bidding, notify the potential bidders that have obtained the bidding documents in writing, and where the bid caller notify bidders less than 15 days before the deadline for bidding, the bid caller shall extend the deadline for submitting bids.

A potential bidder or another interested party having objection against the bidding documents shall raise the objection 10 days prior to the deadline for tendering bids. The bid caller shall give a reply within 3 days of receipt of an objection; and before making an reply, it shall suspend the bidding activities.

Article 13 A bid caller shall determine the rational time a bidder requires for developing a bid. The time limit from the date when the bidding documents are issued to the deadline for tendering bids shall not be less than 20 days at minimum.

Article 14 A bidder shall have the project design qualifications suitable for the bidding project. Overseas design entities' bid for the design of domestic construction projects shall be governed by the relevant provisions of the state.

Article 15 A bidder shall develop its bid according to the requirements of the bidding documents. A bid shall respond to the substantial requirements and conditions stated in the bidding documents.

Article 16 The bid evaluation committee shall be responsible for the bid evaluation.

The bid evaluation committee is composed of the representatives of the bid caller and relevant experts. A bid evaluation committee shall have five or more members (in odd number) and the number of experts in technology and economics shall be not less than two thirds of the total number of its members. For bid evaluation for a construction project design scheme, architectural experts shall not be less than 2/3 of the total number of technical and economic experts.

Generally speaking, bid evaluation experts may be randomly selected from the expert database. For a project that is technically complex or is very specialized, or has national special requirements, the bid caller may also directly invite academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and national engineering survey and design masters of the corresponding majors, as well as overseas experts with corresponding qualifications to participate in the bid evaluation.

Any bidder or any interested party of a bidder shall not participate in the bid evaluation committee.

Article 17 The bid evaluation committee shall reject a bid under any of the following circumstances:

(1) The bid is not sealed by the bidder or signed by the responsible person of the entity as required by the bidding documents.

(2) The consortium of the bid has not submitted a joint bid agreement.

(3) The bidder does not have the qualifications as prescribed by the state or the bidding documents.

(4) The bidder submits two or more different bids or bid offers, unless it submitted alternative bids as required by the bidding documents.

(5) The bid does not respond to the substantial requirements or conditions of the bidding documents.

(6) The bidder colludes other any other bidder or the bid caller in bidding, practices fraud, commits bribery, or has any other illegal behaviors.

(7) Other circumstances under which the bid shall be rejected as prescribed in the laws and regulations.

Article 18 A bid evaluation committee shall review the bids according to the bid evaluation standards and methods determined in the bidding documents.

For a bid invitation for a design scheme, the bid evaluation committee shall, under the premise of satisfying the requirements of urban and rural planning, urban design and safety, green, energy saving and environmental protection, mainly review the functions, technology, economy, and aesthetic, etc.

For a bid invitation for a design team, the bid evaluation committee shall review the personnel composition of the project designers to be employed by the bidder, personnel performance, personnel experience, project interpretation, design idea, the bidder's credit status and performance, etc.

Article 19 The bid evaluation committee shall, after completing bid evaluation, submit a written bid evaluation report to the bid caller, recommend no more than three bid candidates and indicate the order.

Article 20 A bid caller shall announce the bid winning candidates. For a bid invitation for a design team, the bid caller shall announce the main personnel, performance and other contents as listed in the bids of the bid winning candidates.

Article 21 A bid caller shall, according to the written bid evaluation report of the bid evaluation committee and the recommended bid winning candidates, determine the bid winner. The bid caller may also authorize the bid evaluation committee to directly determine the bid winner.

For a bid invitation for a design scheme, if the bid caller believes that the candidate's scheme as recommended by the bid evaluation committee is unable to satisfy the requirements as prescribed in the bidding documents to the maximum extent, it shall legally re-conduct a bid invitation.

Article 22 A bid caller shall, after determining the bid winner, issue a bid winning notice to the bid winner and concurrently notify all bid losers of the bid winning result.

Article 23 A bid caller shall, within 15 days of determining the bid winner, submit a written report on the bidding to the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level.

Article 24 The competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level shall, within 5 working days of the receipt of the written report on the bidding, announce the experts' comments and other information, except those involving state secrets and trade secrets.

Article 25 The bid caller and the bid winner shall, within 30 days of the date of issuance of the bid winning notice, enter into a written contract according to the bidding documents and the bid of the bid winner.

Article 26 The bid caller and the bid winner that use a scheme that fails to win the bid shall obtain the consent of the bidder who submitted the scheme and shall pay use fees to the bidder.

Article 27 The competent department of housing and urban-rural development under the State Council and the competent departments of housing and urban-rural development of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall strengthen the management of the bid evaluation experts for the design of construction projects and the expert databases.

An architectural expert database shall make detailed classifications according to the category of construction projects.

Article 28 The competent departments of housing and urban-rural development shall accelerate the advancement of electronic bidding, improve the construction of the bidding information platform, and promote the informatization supervision of bidding for the design of construction projects.

Article 29 A bid caller that restricts or rejects a potential bidder with unreasonable conditions, treats a potential bidder in a discriminatory manner, forces bidders to form a consortium for bidding, or restricts the competition between bidders shall be ordered to take corrective actions by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level and may be fined more than 10,000 yuan but less than 50,000 yuan.

Article 30 A bid caller that clarifies or modifies the time limit for submitting bids or determines the time limit for submitting bids in violation of the provisions of these Measures shall be ordered to take corrective actions by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level and may be fined up to 100,000 yuan.

Article 31 A bid caller that fails to form a bid evaluation committee under the provisions or determines the members of the bid evaluation committee in violation of the provisions of these Measures shall be ordered to take corrective actions by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level and may be fined up to 100,000 yuan. The corresponding bid evaluation decision shall be invalidated and the bid caller shall re-conduct a bid evaluation according to the law.

Article 32 A bid caller falling under any of the following circumstances shall be ordered to take corrective actions by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level and may be fined up to 10‰ of the price of the bid-winning project; the bid caller having caused losses to others shall assume the liability for compensation according to law; and the directly responsible persons in charge and other directly liable persons shall be given disciplinary actions according to law.

(1) The bid caller fails to issue a bid winning notice under the provisions of these Measures without any justified reason.

(2) The bid caller fails to determine the bid winner as required under relevant provisions.

(3) The bid caller changes the bid winning result without any justified reason after issuing a bid winning notice.

(4) The bid caller fails to enter into a contract with the bid winner under the provisions of these Measures without any justified reason.

(5) The bid caller puts forward additional conditions when entering into a contract.

Article 33 In case a bidder submits a bid in the name of someone else or practices fraud by other means so as to win the bid by fraud, the bid won shall be invalidated; if it causes any loss to the bid caller, he/it shall be liable for compensation; and if a crime is committed, he/it shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the law.

A bidder that commits any of the behaviors as listed in the preceding paragraph, which does not constitute any crime, shall be fined more than 5‰ but less than 10‰ of the price of the bid-winning project by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level and the directly responsible persons in charge and other directly liable persons shall be fined more than 5% but less than 10% of the fine imposed upon their employer; if the bidder has any illegal income therefrom, the illegal income shall be confiscated; and where the circumstances are serious, its qualifications for bidding for the design of construction projects for which bidding is required according to law shall be disqualified for one up to three years, and an announcement shall be issued, and its business license may even be revoked by the administrative authority for industry and commerce.

Article 34 In the event a member of the bid evaluation committee accepts any money and property or other benefits of a bidder and a member of the bid evaluation committee or the relevant staff member participating in bid evaluation discloses the review and comparison of the bid, the recommendation of bid winning candidates and other information related to bid evaluation, he or she shall be given a warning by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level with the money and property he or she accepted being confiscated, and may be fined more than 3,000 yuan but less than 50,000 yuan.

Where a member of the bid evaluation committee conducts any of the behaviors as listed in the preceding paragraph, the relevant competent department shall circulate a notice of criticism and cancel his or her qualification for serving as a member of the bid evaluation committee, and he or she shall no longer participant in the bid evaluation for bidding for the design of any construction project for which bidding is required according to law; and where a crime is constituted, he or she shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the law.

Article 35 A member of the bid evaluation committee that fails to give a rejection opinion on any bid that shall be rejected according to law as in violation of these Measures shall be ordered to take corrective actions by the competent department of housing and urban-rural development of the local people's government at or above the county level; where the circumstances are serious, he or she shall be prohibited from participating in the bid evaluation for bidding for the design of any construction project for which bidding is required according to law within a fixed time period; and where the circumstances are particularly serious, he or she shall be disqualified from serving as a member of the bid evaluation committee by the relevant competent department.

Article 36 A staff member of a competent department of housing and urban-rural development or relevant functional department that practices favoritism, abuses his or her power or neglects his or her duty, which has constituted a crime, shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the law; and if no crime is constituted, he or she shall be given administrative sanctions according to law.

Article 37 Bidding for the design of municipal public works and landscape projects shall be implemented, mutatis mutandis to, these Measures.

Article 38 These Measures shall come into force on May 1, 2017. The Measures for the Administration of Bidding for the Design of Construction Projects (Order No. 82, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development) issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on October 18, 2000 shall be concurrently repealed.