Current Practices to Decrease Subcontractor Bid Shopping in the Public Sector

Legally, several definitions of bid shopping exist. The United States comptroller General described bid shopping as the effort of a prime contractor to reduce his subcontract prices by shopping his lowest bid from sub to sub in an effort to gain a lower price from another subcontractor, this activity occurring after the prime contractor has been awarded the contract 152. At least one state court has referred to shopping subcontractor bids after award as bid chiseling. This court defined bid shopping as the act of shopping bid prior to award 1.52. For the purpose of this paper the term bid shopping refers to the practice of the prime contractor using another subs bid to negotiate a lower price from other competing subs, either before or after award of the contract to the prime contractor.