A Prototype AHP System for Contractor Selection Decision

Contractor selection process is generally believed to be marred with lots of bias in most developing nations, which sometimes leads to incompetent contractor being selected because it is based mainly on human experience and feelings. In particular, in a culturally biased country like Nigeria where most contractors' selection process is not based on performance but rather on whom you know, not paying attention to important factor/criteria but rather on selfish personal gains, which directly or indirectly affect the public in different forms could have some negative effects on projects. The failure of managers to be objective in decision-making in regard to contractor selection has great consequences for the government as well as corporate organizations in terms of cost incurred, delivery time, and impact on the general welfare of the people. Hence, there is a need for managers to be interested in the selection of contractors, suppliers of materials, equipment, and services as failure or inefficiency on the part of the contractor that could affect the well-being of the people negatively and damage the performance rating of the government. Developing an appropriate model to address the problem of poor contractor evaluation would, no doubt, be a great relief in the selection of contractors. This chapter presents a prototype system for contractor evaluation decision.