Best value for money (BPKV).

As a rule, we award our contracts on the basis of the Best Price-Quality Ratio (BPKV) award criterion. This means that we award a contract where, in addition to price, we also rate the way in which the contractor will deliver quality in the process.

Assess Quality

How does HHNK assess quality? When a work is tendered, we look at the following award criteria, for example:

• Environmental management - How does the contractor deal with stakeholder interests?
• Risk management - What risks does the contractor see outside its control and how does it manage them?
• Sustainability - How will the contractor fulfill our sustainability ambitions, for example, the CO2 performance ladder.

HHNK always states in tender documents how tenders will be assessed. In doing so, we formulate award criteria as unambiguously as possible so that all bidders interpret them in the same way.

Assessment methods

The most common evaluation methods at HHNK are the points model and "awarding on value. We explain these methods below.

Point Model

The points model expresses quality and price in points. We add up these points and the highest score wins. How exactly does this work? Each criterion has a weight and for each criterion we assign a number of points. How many points a criterion is worth and what weighting factor is attached to it is stated in the tender instructions.

When awarding points for the various award criteria, we use a method of absolute or relative scoring. With absolute scoring, the valuation of a quality aspect is assessed using a points scale. We attach points to the various gradations of the characteristic to be scored. In relative scoring, entries are scored relative to each other. Number one on a given attribute gets the most points, number two gets less, etc. The relative method is simpler, but can introduce bias in the scores. A small difference between them gives one point difference, while a larger difference sometimes results in only one point difference. It can also have major consequences for the outcome of the procedure if the best scoring bid is eliminated. HHNK therefore applies the method of absolute scoring as much as possible.

Awarding on value

In "awarding by value," we translate quality into euros. We then deduct the resulting amount from the tender price (the tender becomes cheaper) or add to it (the tender becomes more expensive). 

Want to know more about assessment and awarding?

To read how HHNK evaluates bids and awards the contract, go to the Evaluate and Award Procurement page.