Submit your bid and the bid opening

A week of work can be lost in a few minutes: a package handed in ten minutes late, a document uploaded to an overloaded portal, an envelope marked the wrong way. Treat submission as a step of its own, with its own internal date. The tender file sets how it is done. Here is what is most often asked and how to get ready.

The paper package

The most common format is a large outer envelope that holds others. The file describes the details, and the smallest difference can count.

• The outer envelope. It carries the submission address, the notice reference, the lot and often a line such as "not to be opened before the opening session" (à n'ouvrir qu'en séance de dépouillement). When the file requires it, it must carry neither your name nor your stamp: the package has to stay anonymous until opening.
• The inner envelopes. They usually separate the administrative documents, the technical bid and the financial bid. They carry the firm's name and the reference. For consulting, the financial bid usually goes in a separate envelope that will only be opened later.
• The original and the copies. The file says how many copies to provide. Mark each set ORIGINAL or COPY (COPIE in French files), on its first page, and on every page if the file asks for it. If they differ, the original prevails.
• Signatures and initials. Sign where the file requires, often initialling each page, by a person empowered to commit the firm. Attach the power of attorney if the signatory is not the managing director.

Once the package is sealed you can no longer check. So do the last read-through before sealing it, using the list in the article on mistakes that eliminate you.

Submission day

The deadline includes a time, and it is absolute. A package arriving after that time is generally refused or returned unopened, whatever the excuse.

• Set your own limit at least the day before, and keep submission day for the unexpected.
• Find the exact place. The building, the floor and the office. A ministry can have several sites, and the secretariat may have moved.
• Allow for traffic and security checks. A barrier at the entrance, an identity card to hand in, a long queue at the secretariat. Being in the building does not necessarily count as having submitted on time.
• If submission is upcountry, leave the day before. A cut road, a cancelled bus or heavy rain will not move the deadline.
• Insist on a receipt. This is the document that proves the date and time of submission, with a registration number and a signature. Keep it: without it you can prove nothing.
• Check the delivery method. If the file allows post or courier, the risk of delay is still yours. Delivery by hand may also be mandatory.

If the buyer is an international body, check the time zone. The deadline is sometimes given in the time of its head office or in universal time, not yours. Convert it, then write it in local time in your calendar.

Electronic submission

Some national buyers and many international bodies receive bids on a portal. The rules change and so does the risk: no road to travel, but an outage or an oversized file can eliminate you just the same.

1. 1

   Register several weeks ahead

   Validating a supplier account can take documents and several exchanges. Registering on deadline day is a classic way to lose a contract. Do it when no bid is at stake.

2. 2

   Read the technical limits

   Maximum file size, accepted formats, digital signature or signed scan, file names, number of documents. Compress or split your files early enough.

3. 3

   Upload well before the last hour

   A slow connection, an overloaded portal or a power cut is almost never an accepted excuse. Aim for the day before. You can often replace a file until the deadline has passed.

4. 4

   Confirm and keep the proof

   Many portals distinguish a draft from a submitted bid. Go all the way to the final button, wait for the confirmation message or e-mail and keep it with a screenshot.

Some bodies receive bids by e-mail, at a dedicated address that is not necessarily the one for questions. Follow the required subject line, any password protection on the files and the maximum size. Sending the bid to the wrong address is the same as not submitting it.

Withdrawing or changing a bid

Before the deadline you can generally withdraw or replace your bid in writing, under the procedure in the file: often a new envelope marked MODIFICATION, REPLACEMENT or WITHDRAWAL (RETRAIT in French files). On a portal you replace the file and submit again.

After the deadline it is over. Your bid binds you for its whole validity period, and withdrawing it can cost you your bid security.

The bid opening session

The opening session is when the committee opens the bids. It often happens right after the deadline, at the time and place set by the file. In most public tenders, bidders or their representatives may attend. That is not always so: some international bodies and private companies open without an audience, and some portals simply produce a report.

If you can go, go. It is free, and for a small firm there is no better school.

What to bring. An identity document, your receipt and, if possible, a letter authorising you to represent the firm. Something to write with.

What is read aloud. Usually each bidder's name, the amount of the bid, any discounts, whether the bid security is there and any withdrawals or changes. If the file separates the envelopes, prices are read only later.

What to note. Each competitor's name and price, whether the security is there and any anomaly: a late package that was accepted, a price read differently from the bid letter. If you see a problem, ask for it to be recorded. Do not start a debate: the session is not for that.

What not to conclude. The price read aloud is not yet the evaluated price. The cheapest bid can still be eliminated, and a price can be corrected. What comes next is in Evaluation and award.

Ask for the opening minutes, or at least when they will be published. They are useful evidence if you have to challenge a decision, and a good guide to market prices for your next bids.

🇸🇳The rule in Senegal

Submitting bids

• The tender notice states the subject, evaluation criteria in a fixed order, where to collect the dossier, the place and deadline for bids, how long bids stay valid, the required evidence, the bid guarantee amount and whether donors attend the opening (art. 67). Bids are delivered by post, by hand or electronically, at the authority's choice. Electronic platforms must keep bids confidential until the deadline (art. 56 to 58).[1]
• The same person may not submit more than one bid, on pain of rejection (art. 62). Variants are accepted only if the notice and dossier allow them, and only with a compliant base bid (art. 63, 60).[1]

Bid opening

• Opening is in public session, in person or by video, at the deadline. Only bids received on time are opened; others are returned unopened. All candidates may attend and sign an attendance register. The name of each candidate, the amount of each bid, the presence or absence of the bid guarantee and discounts are read aloud. The report is given to any bidder who asks (art. 68).[1]