DAPA overhauls tender evaluation processes

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has announced new processes for evaluating local companies’ responses to defence tenders. A new system for assessing foreign proposals will also be launched soon, DAPA said in a statement.

The new “weapon system proposal evaluation system” was launched on 1 March to improve the fairness and transparency of procuring defence equipment from local companies and related research and development (R&D) projects, said DAPA.

The system introduces improvements in three areas: to support firms prepare competitive proposals to tenders; to strengthen “institutional mechanisms” to improve fairness; and to strengthen the evaluation process, said DAPA.

DAPA also said the system revises the scope of “evaluation items and the allotted points process” based on technologies and capabilities.

The new guidelines require greater detail about specific “evaluation items” and provide a mechanism for closer co-operation between DAPA procurement teams and companies offering products. In addition, the new system seeks to improve the fairness of the procurement process by increasing the number of independent members on procurement evaluation committees.

The system, and its accompanying guidelines, was introduced following a survey conducted with local firms in 2020. In the next few weeks, DAPA intends to brief local firms on the new process.

In terms of foreign acquisitions, DAPA said it has plans to “improve the proposal evaluation system for overseas procurement projects in the near future”.

This “reorganisation” of the overseas procurement process will be aimed at “redesigning” the structure of such acquisitions in order to “maximise the government’s purchasing power”, said DAPA.