Just the other week I heard of two bid openings in which qualified bidders lost the opportunity to pick up work and in both cases unqualified bidders got the job. How did it happen? The low bidders “bombed” their respective jobs, meaning, they bid the work substantially lower than the other competitors for the project.
The low bid on one project was 25% to 30% below the second and third low bids. The rest of the bids were slightly higher than these two. You may say, “So what? The low- bidder apparently thinks it can do the job cheaper than the others. This is what competition is all about, isn’t it?” Actually, it isn’t.