Sustainable Project Delivery of Public Procurement Projects: Contractor Selection Procedure

Selecting a competent contractor is a yardstick for sustainable project delivery. It ensures the project is completed within time, cost and quality standard. This study assesses the procedure of Nigeria’s public procurement Act of 2007 and identifies the frequency of use of prequalification criteria. The research is both exploratory and quantitative in nature. The population for the quantitative study was public clients and consulting organization. Stratified random sampling technique was used. The sample size was calculated using Cochran formula. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed using Cochran formula to generate the sample size. From the sample size calculated, 196 were from consulting firms and 31 from public clients’ organization. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 21^st version was used to analyse the data using frequency, percentage, relative importance index (RII) and t-test. There was an agreement between public clients’ and consultant organisation on the frequency of use of contractors’ prequalification criteria. In conclusion, it is important to consider the method of procurement, size of the project and complexity of the project to ensure the optimum balance of experience, positive references, working chemistry and teamwork.