Splitting a project that legally requires tendering into smaller parts to evade tendering exposes the project to the risk of administrative penalties.
Splitting projects that are legally required to be tendered into smaller pieces to evade tendering is one of the most common and most serious violations of laws and regulations in the field of tendering and bidding. According to Article 49 of the Tendering and Bidding Law and Article 63 of the Implementing Regulations of the Tendering and Bidding Law, where a project that is legally required to be tendered is split into smaller pieces or tendering is evaded in any other manner, the party shall be ordered to make corrections within a specified period and may be fined not less than 0.5% and not more than 1% of the project contract amount; for projects using all or part of state-owned funds, project execution or fund disbursement may be suspended. From the perspective of regulatory definition, the Provisions on Engineering Projects Subject to Mandatory Tendering (NDRC Order No. 16) specify three circumstances under which tendering is legally required: the estimated price of a single construction contract is above RMB 4 million; the estimated price of a single contract for procurement of goods such as important equipment and materials is above RMB 2 million; and the estimated price of a single contract for procurement of services such as survey, design and supervision is above RMB 1 million. Typical methods of splitting projects to evade tendering include dividing a renovation project with an investment of RMB 8 million into five construction contracts of RMB 1.6 million each for separate award, so that each contract amount is below the RMB 4 million tendering threshold. From the perspective of operational impact, the harm of splitting projects to evade tendering is multi-layered. First, this practice deprives potential bidders of the opportunity to participate in fair competition and reduces the adequacy of market competition. Second, dismembered award leads to fragmented project management, blurs the interface of responsibilities among subcontractors, and easily results in poor construction interfaces and quality and safety accidents. At the review and audit level, audit authorities have been increasing their investigation and handling of tendering evasion year by year. In final account audits, audit departments conduct correlation analysis of the timing, amount and counterparties of contract signing, and once suspicious contract-splitting behavior is found, it will be referred to the discipline inspection and supervision authorities. Among the typical cases notified by the national public resource trading platform in 2023, a hospital relocation project was fined 0.8% of the total contract amount because a RMB 40 million renovation project was split into more than 30 small contracts for separate award. From a cost perspective, although formal tendering procedures require payment of tendering agency fees and expert review fees, the cost savings brought by adequate competition usually reach 5%–15%; overall, formal tendering does not increase total cost. The core measures to solve such problems include strictly reviewing the tendering plan at the project initiation stage, establishing an internal compliance review mechanism for tendering matters within the construction unit, having the legal or compliance department conduct legality and compliance review of each award plan, and using the electronic supervision system of the public resource trading platform for big-data screening. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved. From the perspective of systems engineering in engineering management, solving this problem requires coordinated advancement across four dimensions: institutional design, process control, technical support and culture building. At the institutional design level, clear responsibility boundaries and operating procedures should be established, and regulatory requirements should be transformed into executable job responsibilities and work standards. At the process control level, full-life-cycle quality supervision and dynamic correction should be implemented to ensure that the work results of each stage meet expected goals. At the technical support level, information-based methods and intelligent tools should be actively introduced to improve the precision and efficiency of management. At the culture building level, quality awareness and compliance awareness should be cultivated among all staff to create an organizational atmosphere that pursues excellence. Only by organically combining these four dimensions can the recurring common quality problems and persistent management problems in engineering construction be fundamentally solved, and continuous improvement and excellent performance in project management be achieved.