A reformed public bidding/tender system for highway construction projects in Sichuan has saved the province 330 million yuan (US$40 million) since its implementation three years ago, according to Sichuan channel of www.xinhuanet.com.

The new system, the lowest evaluation method (LEM), requires all qualified bidders to submit their tenders at the same time, using a predetermined recommended contract price as a yardstick. The tenderee then makes a public announcement of all the bids received. The lowest bidder wins the contract, but not before an examination by an evaluation committee, and furnishing a contract fulfillment guarantee.

The existing system in other parts of China is riddled with artificial and unnecessary processes relating to tender bidding preparation, invitation, evaluation and decision-making, which easily led to corruption in some cases, said Wu Guoxing, director of the Communication Department in Sichuan Province.

Since 1997, 17 provincial transportation officials have been investigated for corruption, along with hundreds of low-ranking officials.

Liu Zhongshan, former director of Sichuan's Communication Department, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 2000. Zheng Daofang, former deputy director of the same department, was sentenced to death in 2000.

Widespread corruption in the transportation sector is of grave concern, and has been blamed on an exploding development of the industry and the absence of any supervision or control mechanisms.

Since 2002, the LEM has been adopted in nine highway construction projects with no reports of corruption or bribery.

You Yong, vice manager of the third Filiale of China Railway 21st Bureau Group, said: "As a bidder, we like the LEM very much. The competition between companies relies on price, quality and figures, not on relationships."

The keen competition the LEM encourages ensures that companies make the effort to improve on their construction capabilities and cost management. In the long run, this works to the mutual benefit of the country as a whole and the individual companies involved.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, June 17, 2005)