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 Cameroon

Submitting bids

• The bid goes in a sealed envelope holding three separate envelopes: administrative documents, technical offer, financial offer. The outer envelope shows the tender number and subject, never the bidder's identity. It is deposited against a receipt at the place stated in the notice. An envelope arriving after the deadline is inadmissible (art. 91). The number of copies is set by the tender rules (7 in the notices read: one original and six copies); too few copies, or copies only, makes the bid inadmissible (circular, point 90).[1][2][4][11]
• Bids are received by the buyer's services, not by the board: no envelope can be handed in during the opening session (circular, point 88). If you could not buy the file because of the buyer's services, your bid cannot be refused on that ground, but you must show the purchase receipt (points 86 and 87).[4]
• Electronic (decree of 5 January 2018): the bid is signed electronically, encrypted automatically and time-stamped, and must be backed up by a copy on a physical medium in a sealed envelope marked 'copie de sauvegarde' that arrives before the deadline. Several uploads are allowed: only the last counts. The file sets the file formats, and ignoring them makes the bid inadmissible. The file purchase fee is paid before submission (arts. 6 and 10 to 14).[3]
• The choice to run a tender electronically belongs to the project owner, within limits set each year by ministerial order. Paper and electronic procedures coexist until an exclusive system is in place (arts. 34 and 35). The 2025 and 2026 notices I read state 'offline' submission. One notice warns that a bidder cannot use both online and offline routes when both are open.[3][11][12]
• According to the press, the 27 December 2024 order requires over 200 administrations (ministries and their regional delegations, all local authorities, universities and agencies) to use COLEPS from 2025, then sub-divisional offices, public establishments, projects and programmes in 2026, and all project owners in 2027. What this requires of bidders is not established. Registration reportedly goes through MINMAP, with a signing key from ANTIC, per a specialised site.[13][17][10]unofficial source
• A tender notice must be written in French and in English (art. 85). It states the funding, the budget envelope, the place, date and time limits for submission and opening, how long bids remain valid, and the bid bond amount (art. 86).[1][2]

Bid opening

• Opening takes place no later than one hour after the submission deadline, by the award board (arts. 91 and 92). Only one representative per bidder may attend, even for a joint venture. The administrative documents and main bid elements (time limits, amounts, discounts) are read out publicly. Minutes are drawn up on the spot, and an extract with the attendance sheet is given on request.[1][2]
• If an administrative document is missing or non-compliant, the bidder has 48 hours to produce or replace it; the original is then deposited against a receipt at the board's secretariat. A missing bid bond gets no such grace period (art. 92; circular, points 99 and 103).[1][2][4]
• Works, supplies and quantifiable services: one session opens everything. Non-quantifiable services and intellectual services: administrative documents and technical offer are opened first, then later only the financial offers of those with the minimum technical score, in their presence (art. 93). In that case also include the witness financial offer in a separate sealed envelope: its absence makes the bid inadmissible (circular, point 91).[1][2][4]