Procedures and Issues within the Contractors Classification System in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Research has shown that construction projects in Saudi Arabia have exhibited poor performance for the past three decades. The Saudi construction environment lacks many of the best practices found in more developed countries, such as prequalification, bonding, and 3rd party insurance. The government’s construction relies on the low bid delivery method and prequalified contractors using the Contractors’ Classification System (CCS). However, the current CCS does not accurately represent contractors’ capabilities and performance. This paper reviews all of the parts of the Saudi CCS, including the workflow and the evaluation criteria. This paper proposes to analyze the current classification system and identify the issues incorporated in the CCS regulations and classification process. This paper summarizes the authors’ critical review through interviews that have been carried out with key persons in the CCS. Several issues with the CCS are identified, such as no performance feedback, complexity of the system, and high resource requirements. The findings identify that the current CCS must be modified to be able to accurately reflect contractor capability and performance.