In a competitive DB procurement, what should be established for handling price and technical proposals?

• A. negotiations only
• B. clear evaluation and selection processes
• C. secrecy and limited transparency
• D. automatic awarding to lowest price

Answer: (B)

In a competitive design-build procurement, you must run the process in a way that yields the best overall value while staying fair and transparent. That means establishing a clear evaluation and selection process for how price and technical proposals will be handled. A well-defined method lays out how technical merit is assessed (design approach, constructability, schedule, risk, past performance, innovation, etc.) and how price proposals will be reviewed, compared, and weighed against the technical score. With predefined criteria, scoring rubrics, and a documented sequence, the team can consistently determine which proposal offers the best value for the project, rather than simply choosing the cheapest bid or negotiating ad hoc. After evaluating technical proposals, price is then considered within the established framework, sometimes with negotiations restricted to certain aspects, but never as a free-form, unstructured decision. This structured approach is essential to fairness, transparency, and defensible selection in DB procurement. The other options fall short because they either rely on negotiations without a defined framework, hide information that must be transparent in public procurement, or automatically award to the lowest price, which can ignore technical merit and risk.