Towards Secure and Legal E-Tendering

Tendering processes are considered to be a suitable mechanism for governments to fairly assign contracts for construction projects and procurement. The demand for efficiencies to be created in the process has resulted in a significant number of governments implementing e-tendering systems. E-tendering systems generally involve the submission of tender offer documents to a secure system hosted by the government (principal). An electronic environment presents obvious opportunities for collusion between principal and certain tenderers, fraud by tenderers and a minefield of legal uncertainties for fuelling protracted disputes. Critical examination of the security and legal requirements for e-tendering systems does not appear in the current literature. This paper identifies key security and legal issues to be addressed in the design of e-tendering systems, which may be included in e-procurement software, and proposes a new e-tendering architecture, using distributed trusted third parties which may be suitable for secure large scale operations such as the construction industry

Misuse case modeling for secure e-tendering system

Tendering process is utilized by principal to invited capable tenderer to participate in competitive bid for winning a large project.Due to advent of IT infrastructure, E-tendering is introduced and adopted in many countries. Yet, an electronic environment did not promise curbing collusion between principal and certain tenderers. Other than common threats to system like security breaches by malicious parties, security issue related to ethical issue like fraud and repudiation issue where no evidence existed to denied it.In this paper, common threats for e-tendering process altogether with security countermeasure are described. This three interrelated attribute (consist of tender phase, threat and security countermeasure) are illustrated in misuse case for better understanding of the risk that may occurs in particular tender phase. Furthermore, it sought to ease the system developer for designing and constructing a secure e-tendering system

A secured e-tendering model based on rational unified process (RUP) approach: inception and elaboration phases

Due to the rapid rise in the e-Tendering transaction over the internet and the increasing use of e-Tendering solution by large organizations, there is a need to construct a secured e-Tendering model to ensure some security mechanisms such as confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of the document are embedded in the e-tendering model.This to ensure the e-tendering transaction is secured and the most important is to gain trust from the e-Tendering stakeholder. Therefore, there is a need to develop a secured e-Tendering model as a guideline to e-tendering developers in developing the system. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is the most appropriate system development methodology that can guide researchers in generating secured artifact. The RUP has been used by many researchers to construct a secured application model in various researches and projects. This due to the ability of the RUP in guiding researchers to deliver secured artifacts through Inception and elaboration phases.Therefore, this study aims to construct a secured e-tendering artifacts based on RUP. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used to generate the secured e-tendering artifacts. This paper discusses the generation of use case, misuse case and class diagrams based on security mechanism that need to be embedded in the e-Tendering model.This study also found that, the RUP is one of the best system development methodology that can be used as one of the research methodology in the Software Engineering domain, especially related to secured design of any observed application.This methodology has been tested in various studies, such as in Simulation-based Decision Support, Security Requirement Engineering, Business Modeling and Secure System Requirement, and so forth.This study may contribute to the software industries in developing a secured system application in the future, and also to the secured system modeling domain

Critical success factors for e-tendering implementation in construction collaborative environments : people and process issues

The construction industry is increasingly engulfed by globalisation where clients, business partners and customers are found in virtually every corner of the world. Communicating, reaching and supporting them are no longer optional but are imperative for continued business growth and success. A key component of enterprise communication reach is collaborative environments (for the construction industry) which allows customers, suppliers, partners and other project team members secure access to project information, products or services they need at any given moment. Implementation of the stated critical success factors of the project is essential to ensure optimal performance and benefits from the system to all parties involved. This paper presents critical success factors for the implementation of e-tendering in collaborative environments with particular considerations given to the people issues and process factors

Kesan pembelajaran koperatif terhadap pencapaian pendidikan alam sekitar dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah menengah rendah

Pembelajaran koperatif merupakan satu teknik pembelajaran yang melibatkan pelajar bekerjasama dalam satu kumpulan untuk mencapai matlamat tertentu. Dalam topik Pendidikan Alam Sekitar, pelajar didapati agak lemah dalam memahami sesuatu istilah dan tidak dapat mengaitkan topik dengan pengalaman serta persekitaran mereka. Sebelum ini, pengajaran dan pembelajaran lebih berpusatkan guru. Pembelajaran koperatif pula hanya melibatkan mata pelajaran yang menggunakan makmal atau bengkel. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk meninjau kesan pembelajaran berkumpulan terhadap pencapaian pelajar dalam Pendidikan Alam Sekitar melalui mata pelajaran Geografi. Bentuk kajian yang digunakan ialah kuasi-eksperimen yang dijalankan dengan menggunakan ujian pra dan ujian pasca ke atas kumpulan eksperimen dan kumpulan kawalan. Sampel kajian adalah dua kumpulan pelajar tingkatan 1 dari Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Luar Bandar di negeri Johor. Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 37 orang pelajar kumpulan eksperimen dan 35 orang pelajar kumpulan kawalan. Kumpulan eksperimen merupakan kumpulan yang menggunakan kaedah pembelajaran koperatif manakala kumpulan kawalan diajar tanpa pembelajaran koperatif. Instrumen kajian ialah ujian pencapaian, borang soal selidik, jadual pemerhatian dan temubual. Hasil kajian mendapati min pencapaian kumpulan eksperimen adalah tinggi iaitu 18.16 berbanding dengan min kumpulan kawalan, iaitu 13.91. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan terdapat peningkatan pencapaian bagi pelajar yang menjalani pembelajaran koperatif berbanding dengan pelajar yang tidak mengamalkan kaedah pembelajaran tersebut. Pelajar juga dapat menerima penggunaan pembelajaran koperatif dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Kesimpulannya, pembelajaran koperatif bukan sahaja dapat meningkatkan hasil malah dapat meningkatkan kualiti proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran

E-tendering in construction: time for a change?

E-tendering is one of the information technology tools that has been highlighted by construction industry experts to assist in changing the industry’s culture and improving its processes. However the emergence of e-tendering in construction in the UK has been slow. This paper documents a questionnaire survey of quantity surveyors in northern England, identifying their views on different aspects of e-tendering, and providing an analysis of the perceived drivers and barriers to its implementation. Using a relative importance index, time and cost are confirmed as the two most significant perceived drivers in implementing e-tendering, while sustainability benefits are also recognised as important. The lack of experience and precedence in the legal realm is one of the main perceived barriers. The paper explores the impact of personal characteristics on attitudes towards e-tendering. Age and experience are particularly significant, with older and more experienced surveyors being more critical and negative than younger surveyors towards e-tendering. The analysis also identifies that the size and type of company affects attitudes with regard to electronic sharing of information and the related aspects of infrastructure and security. Smaller companies have more concerns with regard to security, while contractors’ quantity surveyors have much more concern over sharing information than clients’ consultants. Prior use also affects attitudes, with inexperienced users expressing more concerns over the use of e-tendering. The conclusion is that, amongst quantity surveyors, there is recognition of the benefits that e-tendering can bring about but that there are a number of barriers currently acting as a brake on the uptake of e-tendering

Electronic Tendering : Guidelines and Recommendations for Successful Implementation and Uptake

This publication, summarising outcomes of an investigation into eTendering as a part of a CRC Construction Innovation research project, presents guidelines and recommendations to be considered when implementing eTendering systems, procedures and policies

Setting the market free: deregulation of the bus industry. 4th Smeed Memorial Lecture, 29th October 1987.

[FIRST PARAGRAPH]Though he was not himself an economist, Reuben Smeed is well known to transport economists as the chairman of a committee which, in the early sixties, examined the use of congestion charges to obtain a rational use of scarce urban road capacity. (1) The Smeed report showed that in the absence of a proper road congestion pricing system there would be an excessive use of the private car, and, by implication, a sub optimum level of use of public transport. Although, to the best of my knowledge, Reuben never turned his mind to the issues of public transport regulation, the ready acceptance of public transport regulation and subsidy as second best proxies for road pricing in the late sixties and seventies was, I believe, founded on the Smeed logic

Exploring anti-corruption capabilities of e-procurement in construction project delivery in Nigeria

The use of electronic (e-­) procurement to support the execution of supply chain management activities in the different industrial sectors is permeating all regions of the world. However, in countries in sub-Saharan Africa where there is a significant level of corruption and unethical practices in the procurement process, there is a need for a better understanding of how e-Procurement can help to check the incidence of corrupt and unethical practices in construction project delivery. This study relied on a cross-sectional survey of 759 respondents, including architects, builders, engineers, estate/facilities managers, contractors, construction/project managers, quantity surveyors, supply chain managers and others to identify and analyse the anti-corruption capabilities of e-Procurement in construction project delivery in Nigeria. The results of the descriptive statistics, relative importance index and principal components analysis identified 18 anti-corruption capabilities in e-Procurement in construction project delivery with the three most important ones being the capability of e-Procurement to ensure good inventory management/record keeping; accountability by providing audit services trail and minimise direct human contacts during bidding. The key underlying dimensions of these capabilities include the advantage of e-Procurement over the traditional paper-based method; transparent bidding process and increase in competition in construction project delivery process. The findings of this study have implications, especially, on the use of e-Procurement to curb corruption in construction procurement activities