Inclusion of budget information

In most contexts where cost is a key criterion in the selection of contractors, clients do not indicate the budget available for the work. But there are sectors of procurement in which contracting authorities do provide this information. It is standard practice in certain areas of EC- funded work, and is an option sometimes taken by other development agencies and international financing institutions in contracting for assignments that are simple, capable of precise definition and subject to a fixed budget.

If you are told the budget, does it match your perception of the scale of the professional effort required?
How is the available budget likely to be structured over the duration of the contract?
How will these points need to be reflected in your cost estimates?

Client responsibilities and inputs

What can you learn about the client's degree of commitment to the success of the project?
How does the client organization perceive its role and responsibilities?
What data, resources, facilities and logistic support is it offering to make available to the contractors?

Required content of the bid

Has the client indicated how the bid is to be structured and the information it needs to contain?
Are there forms or templates that you must use to supply particular categories of information such as contract experience and CVs?
Are you given the opportunity to include additional material explaining your approach?
Has the client invited comments on the bid specification?
Have limits been set on the length of the bid as a whole or parts of the bid?

Price information

Has the client given instructions about the way price information is to be structured?
Does it have to be set out in a particular format defined by the client - for example, by completing a schedule of prices included in the client documentation?
Does the client require detailed information about the elements that make up your costs (Chapter 20)?

Evaluation criteria

Does the bid specification identify the evaluation procedure, the criteria to be used in deciding the winning bid and the weighting to be assigned to individual criteria?
Is the award of contract to be made on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender?
What part is price likely to play in the evaluation?
Will the quality of the technical approach be decisive ?
Has the client emphasized points such as value for money, management capability, technological experience, innovation and creativity?
Are there indications of the factors that represent added value and multiplier benefits to the client?

Procurement process

Is this the decisive stage in the procurement process, or will there be a further stage in which selected bidders are asked to prepare more detailed solutions to the client's requirements while taking part in commercial negotiations?

Clarification procedures

In the context of public procurement, clients normally apply a formal procedure for dealing with requests for further information on factual points. Requests usually have to be made in writing, and there is a cut-off time for their receipt - for example, a certain number of working days before the deadline for the submission of bids. To ensure even- handedness and avoid any suggestion of treating some bidders more favourably than others, clients will communicate the reply to a request for clarification simultaneously to all bidders, not just the one that raised the query. Where the technical aspects of a contract are particularly complex, they may arrange a formal briefing session or clarification meeting to which all the bidders are invited.

You will compromise your position and risk disqualification if you contact the client in the hope of floating ideas and fishing for pointers about items other than matters of fact. It's your tender and you must use your own judgement about what you say in it. Don't feel you have to take part in the clarification procedure just to show that you are a serious contender. If you are astute enough to see points in the specification that can help you develop a more effective bid, you will not want to share these insights with your competitors . Bids are no place for altruism.

As you read through the bid specification, identify the items that appear to require clarification and any points you think are missing. Check back to the document to make sure you have not simply failed to spot the information and that it is not implicit in some other part of the text or in the instructions to tenderers or letter of invitation . Make sure any question you do ask is sensible and worth asking: you don't want to appear foolish by showing that you have not read the specification properly.