What is prequalification?

Under M.G.L. c. 149, municipalities are required to prequalify general contractors and subcontractors for any public building contract estimated to cost $10 million or more. This process, known as prequalification, enables municipalities to limit the pool of eligible bidders on a public building project to only those general contractors and subcontractors deemed qualified to perform the work.

The prequalification process includes the following steps. Further information about these steps can be found in the latest edition of Designing and Constructing Public Facilities, a manual published by the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General.

  1. Establish a Prequalification Committee. Per M.G.L. c. 149, the Prequalification Committee must consist of the following four members: a representative of the project designer and three representatives of the municipality, one of which must be the Owner's Project Manager (OPM).
  1. Prepare a request for qualifications (RFQ). The RFQ must follow specific evaluation criteria, information requirements, and the 100-point rating system specified in M.G.L. c. 149.
  1. Advertise the RFQ and receive statements of qualification. The RFQ must be advertised at least two weeks prior to the deadline for receiving statements of qualification.
  1. Evaluate and prequalify general contractors and subcontractors. The Prequalification Committee will evaluate each statement of qualification using the evaluation criteria contained in the RFQ and prescribed by state law. The Prequalification Committee must select at least three qualified general contractors, and at least three qualified subcontractors for each category of subtrade work subject to filed sub-bid requirements.[1] Only general contractors and subcontractors receiving the minimum score stated for each evaluation category and a minimum total score of 70 points may be prequalified to bid on the public building project.

Note: As part of Step 4, the Prequalification Committee may choose to delegate the checking of references to individuals outside of the Prequalification Committee, provided that a written form with uniform questions is developed and used for all reference checks. In addition, the Chair of the Prequalification Committee is authorized to delegate additional administrative tasks as necessary to facilitate the prequalification process.

Once the prequalification process is complete, only those general contractors and subcontractors prequalified by the Library Construction Committee will be eligible to submit bids and filed sub-bids for the New Tufts Library Project.

[1] M.G.L. c. 149 identifies 18 categories of subtrade work that municipalities are required to bid separately from a project’s final or general bid. This process is known as the filed sub-bid system. In a nutshell, the filed sub-bid system requires subcontractors to submit filed sub-bids independently of and in advance of general bids, and general contractors are required to select one sub-bidder in each category of work to include on his/her general bid.