Of direct negotiations and open tenders
The heated exchange over direct-negotiated projects in the recent parliamentary sitting has once again raised question over the status of “request for proposal” (RFP) as an open tender method. The criticism over the nature of RFP as open tender stemmed from the ignorance of classification of procurement approaches. Any procurement method subjected to competitive submission of tender is “open”. This is in contrast with procurement that is directly awarded without involving the evaluation of various submitted proposals. Open tender can be done in several ways, one of which is RFP. To borrow the classification from biology, open tender is genus while request for proposal is species . The advantages of open RFP include the early identification of risks and benefits of the different proposals. RFP also allows for creativity and pushes for innovative solution. Bidders can develop their best proposal for the project, while the project owner gets to evaluate the various counter-plans to choos