Payment bonds are designed to ensure payment of subcontractors, laborers and material men by the prime contractor. Bid documents should always include the relevant statement of work, a descriptions of the desired form of the response, and any required contractual provisions. Evaluation criteria are used to rate or score contractor proposals and are often included as part of the bid document. Also called relative standards of evaluation. Bidders conferences are meetings with prospective contractors prior to preparation of a proposal.
Contractors have a clear, common understanding of the procurement.
Contractor proposals are contractor prepared documents that describe the contractor's ability and willingness to provide the requested product. Source selection involves the receipt of bids or proposals and the application of the evaluation criteria to select a contractor. Contract negotiation involves clarification and mutual agreement on the structure and requirements of the contract. A weighting system is a method for quantifying qualitative date in order to minimize the effect of personal prejudice on source selection. For many procurement items, the procuring organization may prepare its own estimates as a check on contractor proposals.