Public procurement in construction: international practice

Introduction. The distribution and receipt of design and construction orders is a most important element in the construction life cycle. It is of considerable interest to study the rules governing the distribution of state orders and the practice of their application in various countries. This article examines the experience of the leading world economies accumulated in the bidding for construction projects. Materials and methods. The authors studied original legal documents on the organization of tenders for construction works in several countries, as well as in international organizations. The tender rules of the USA, France, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, China are considered. Materials of reviews and scientific researches, conducted by other scientists, are also used and summarized. Results. The principal methods for organizing tenders for construction and design works were identified as a result of analysis of regulatory documents. The authors have found many common approaches and methods used to assure equal and responsible relations between the state customer and the construction contractor. Conclusions. It has been established that a number of methods, widely used abroad, are practically not used in Russia, for example, competitive negotiations and two stage tendering. On the contrary, a foreign reader may think that some provisions of the Russian legislation are strange, for example, initial contract price setting by the customer or electronic document management rules in the federal law.