Page 86 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

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Tendering
be avoided because they can provide opportunities which undermine the
independent nature of competitive bids. However, visits to inspect sites will
need to be paid by tenderers. If such site visits are made in the company of the
employer’s engineer or one of his assistants, the engineer must be careful to
provide only factual answers to queries raised. Should this provide a visiting
tenderer with additional information this will need to be sent out to all ten-
derers. It is better if the tenderer visiting is accompanied, if need be, by a
guide who is not directly connected with the contract, any queries being noted
and dealt with formally after the visit.
6.6 Considering tenders

Opening tenders

Arrangements for return of tenders should be set out in the ‘Instructions to
Tenderers’, giving both the place and latest time for receipt. Tenderers need
to use secure means of delivery, and should receive a signed confirmation of
delivery. It is usual to require tenders to be returned in sealed envelopes, marked
only with the contract name and no means of identifying the name of the ten-
derer. Arrangements should be made to mark each tender envelope with the
date and time of receipt, and for the safe storage of same until opening is author-
ized. Documents received after the closing time should be similarly marked and
held unopened, until the employer decides whether they can be considered
valid or not. Obviously common sense must be exercised; the employer will not
wish to have a genuine bid invalidated by conveyance mishaps outside the
control of a tenderer, such as a postal strike, or aircraft delayed. Once tenders
are opened, no late delivery of a tender can be considered.
Tenders for large projects are sometimes opened at a public ceremony, the
name and total tendered price of each tenderer being announced. This has the
advantage that everything is ‘above board’ so that practices which could distort
price competition are precluded. Also, contractors gain immediate knowledge
as to how they stand with respect to getting the contract. In other cases, such as
in local government, the practice is for tenders to be opened by a senior official
in the presence of the chairman of the appropriate committee and others
according to the standing rules of the authority. A record is usually made of the
tendered prices as opened and signed by one or more of those present.
The tenders when opened are then usually passed to the employer’s engi-
neer for examination. The first step is to mark all documents with the name of
the tenderer and list them. This list should be given an independent check so
as to be certain that, if a tenderer says one of his documents has been missed,
the employer’s officials can show it was not received. Once the list has been
compiled, any document not returned by a contractor that should have been
returned, is noted.