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.




Bids, Tenders and Proposals. Winning Business Through Best Practice
Bids, Tenders and Proposals: Winning Business through Best Practice (Bids, Tenders & Proposals: Winning Business Through Best)
ISBN: 0749454202
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 145
Authors: Harold Lewis

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