Singapore Govt Used Two-Envelope System In Former NCO Club Tender

Oct 23, 2007

Singapore Govt used two-envelope system in former NCO Club tender for specific objective.

The Singapore government adopted a two-envelope approach in its tender of the former NCO Club along Beach Road, as it wanted to achieve a specific development outcome for the commercial site.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told Parliament today that the approach would allow the site to be developed into a high-quality development which can add value to the city, and at the same time, achieve a competitive price.

Mr Mah added the conventional price-only approach cannot ensure the quality of the new development as a whole.

The Beach Road site offers a unique opportunity to realise a large scale, high-quality, landmark development for our city centre. The developemt promises to be a major element of the city sky-line. It will be highly visible, at the same time the site poses a number of design challenges.

Under the two-envelope system, tenderers are required to submit two evelopes -- the first containing the concept proposal, and the other, containing the bid price.

The concept proposals are evaluated first, by a Concept Evaluation Committee, that contains both private and public sector experts.

Only proposals deemed acceptable are then moved into the second stage, where the second envelopes for these proposals are opened.

The site will be awarded to the tender with the highest bid, provided this the government's minimum reserve price.

Mr Mah said proposals for the Beach Road site were evaluated based on four criteria -the appropriateness of context, quality of architecture, composition and and placement of use, and track record of the tenderer and design team.

But Mr Mah assured that the government will continue to apply the two-envelope system very selectively.

The government had used it only twice before -- one for the Urban Entertainment Centre site at Victoria Street in 2005 and the Collyer Quay site in 2006.