Evaluation and award: what happens after you submit

Once the packages are opened, your bid disappears into a committee and you often hear nothing for weeks, sometimes months. That silence is normal, but your work does not stop: the committee can write to you at any moment, and a late reply can eliminate you. Here is what happens in that time, in order, and what you have to do.

What the committee does, in order

The evaluation committee applies the grid and the criteria written in the tender file, and nothing else. The usual order is as follows.

1. 1

   Administrative compliance

   Are the required documents there, valid and signed? Does the bid security comply? This is where expired certificates and missing forms fall. In some files the committee accepts that a non-essential document be supplied afterwards. Do not count on it.

2. 2

   Technical review

   Does your bid answer what was asked? The committee checks the eliminatory criteria, references, staff, equipment and schedule, and gives a score if the file provides for one. Often, a bid that does not reach the technical minimum never has its price looked at.

3. 3

   Financial review

   The committee redoes the sums, corrects errors, adjusts prices so they can be compared, applies any preferences and looks for abnormally low bids.

4. 4

   Ranking and final check

   It ranks the bids and proposes a winner. Some files provide at this stage for a closer check of the top-ranked firm: financial capacity, references, sometimes a visit. If it fails, the committee moves to the next one.

After the committee's opinion, the award often goes through a validation: an oversight body or the funder's no-objection, depending on the contract. That is one reason the result can take time.

Lowest evaluated bid or weighted score

The file says which of these two methods applies. Works, supplies and ordinary services most often use the first, and consulting the second.

The lowest evaluated bid. Among the bids that meet the requirements, the contract goes to the one with the lowest evaluated price. The evaluated price can differ from the price read aloud: error corrections, adjustments, preferences. A high technical score earns nothing extra here. You just have to clear the bar.

The weighted score. The committee scores technical quality and price, then combines them using the weights written in the file. The best combined score wins, even without the lowest price. This is the classic consulting case, with a financial envelope opened only for those who reached the minimum technical score.

After a consulting ranking, the contract is generally negotiated with the top-ranked firm. In a classic tender, negotiating the price is usually forbidden. With private companies and some organisations, on the other hand, it can be common: see Who is buying and which rules apply.

If the committee writes to you

The committee can ask for a clarification: an unreadable document, a date to confirm, a reference to clear up. The request comes in writing and gives a time limit, often very short.

• Reply at once, and in writing. Watch the e-mail address and phone number you gave in the bid, including when travelling. A late reply can be treated as no reply.
• Reply only to what is asked. You are clarifying your bid, not writing a better one.
• You cannot change your price, or anything that would change the substance of the bid. The only usual price change is the committee's correction of a calculation error.

Do not try to reach committee members privately either. Any attempt to influence them can get your bid rejected, and bring heavier sanctions.

Preferences and abnormally low bids

Some rules grant a preference, for example to national, regional or local firms, or to small businesses. It often takes the form of a margin applied only for the comparison: the foreign competitor's price is raised for the calculation, and the contract is then signed at your real price. If you qualify, attach what the file asks for to prove it, because it is not always applied automatically.

If your price seems abnormally low, the committee can ask you to justify it. Have your quotes and price breakdown ready: see Price your financial bid.

🇨🇲The rule in Cameroon

Evaluating bids

• For works, supplies and quantifiable services, qualification criteria are pass/fail, objective and verifiable. For non-quantifiable and intellectual services, evaluation is by scoring with sub-criteria (art. 87). Only the criteria in the tender file may be used to eliminate or judge a bid (art. 95).[1][2]
• The Code sets no minimum technical score. In one council notice read, at least 70% 'yes' answers on the technical grid were needed for the financial offer to be analysed. Evaluation lasts at most 10 working days for a minor one-stage project, 15 for two-stage opening, 21 for a complex project (art. 94). The board proposes the award within 21 working days of opening (10 if urgent, 30 for two-stage opening) (art. 18).[1][2][11]
• Clarifications are requested in writing, with at most 7 working days to answer, and may not make the bid more competitive. If words and figures differ, the price in words prevails. False statements, forged documents and fraudulent practices lead to elimination (art. 95).[1][2]
• An abnormally low bid may be rejected only after a written request for justification that is found unsatisfactory, with an ARMP opinion within 7 working days (art. 105). An unconditional discount is applied before comparison. A conditional discount counts only in a multi-lot tender, if you rank first on more than one lot (circular, point 107).[1][2][4]

Preferences and SMEs

• National preference applies between equivalent bids, only in international tenders, and only if the file provides for it (art. 106). Priority order: a person or company under Cameroonian law; a company with mostly Cameroonian capital; a firm with economic activity in Cameroon; a joint venture including Cameroonian firms. The margin is 10% for works and quantifiable services. For supplies it needs at least 15% local or regional processing. There is none for intellectual services. For international tenders financed from domestic resources it applies and must appear in the file (circular, point 73).[1][2][4]
• For minor works that national very small firms and SMEs can carry out, award criteria must take into account the bidder's track record on similar works and its location (art. 100). For jobbing orders, if the file provides, the references of the promoter or a technical manager of a newly created national SME stand in for the company's own (art. 97).[1][2]
• Contracts may be reserved for craftsmen, national SMEs, community-based organisations and civil society organisations (art. 70). Subcontracted work goes first to national SMEs at least 51% owned by nationals, then, failing that, to SMEs and large firms at least 33% nationally owned (art. 132).[1][2]
• Local labour: performance conditions must include social considerations that promote local labour and decent work, and prefer the labour-intensive approach (HIMO) wherever possible, as set in the special technical clauses (art. 57). The maximum share that can be subcontracted is set by the general administrative clauses (art. 132), which I did not read.[1][2]

Extending bid validity

Your bid is valid for a period set by the file. If the evaluation runs past that period, the buyer can ask you to extend it.

Take this request seriously and reply within the time given. As a general rule:

• you can refuse, and you then leave the competition without losing your security;
• if you accept, you keep your price unless a clause says otherwise, and you must have the bank extend your security if its date becomes too short.

Before replying, redo your sums. Do your suppliers still hold their prices? Is the contract still profitable at this amount? Never leave a request unanswered, because your bid may drop out without you having decided it.

Reading a provisional award

The provisional award, sometimes published as an award notice, is the decision of the committee or the competent authority before the contract is signed. It usually opens a period during which bidders can challenge it, before any signature.

Depending on the country, it appears in the procurement journal, on the public portal or on the buyer's website, and bidders sometimes receive a letter. Read it carefully:

• The winner's name and the amount. Compare with what was read at opening. A difference may be explained by a correction, or give you a question to ask.
• The lot. Check that it really is yours.
• The time limits. Write down the publication or receipt date at once: it is often what starts the clock for an appeal. See Challenge a decision.
• The grounds for rejection, when they are given.

A provisional award is not yet a contract. If you are selected, do not start anything or buy anything before notification and the steps that follow. They are described in Deliver the contract and get paid.

🇨🇲The rule in Cameroon

• Works, supplies and quantifiable services: the contract goes to the bid that meets the qualification criteria and is evaluated as lowest. Non-quantifiable services, intellectual services and design competitions: to the bid evaluated as best value (art. 99). For non-quantifiable services, the lowest price therefore does not necessarily win.[1][2]
• The buyer signs the award decision and publishes the results in the Journal des Marchés, with the winner's amount and time limit, within 5 working days of the board's final proposal (art. 101). The extract of the evaluation report is given to you on request, within 72 hours per the circular. Without an appeal, notification takes place no later than 15 calendar days after publication (art. 175).[1][2][4]
• The winner has 15 working days to sign the contract; after that and a formal notice, the decision may be cancelled, the bid bond is forfeited and the contract goes to the second-ranked bidder (art. 101). The contract must be notified before any work starts, and any claim for services performed before notification is inadmissible (art. 123). The start order follows within 15 calendar days.[1][2]
• Bid above available funding: the buyer moves to the next-ranked bidder with an acceptable offer (art. 103), or negotiates in ranking order with one bidder at a time. Negotiation cannot cover unit prices and its financial effect is capped at 15% of the bid. A tender can be declared failed only if there is no bid, no compliant bid, or no bid compatible with the funding. The buyer may also cancel it; once bids are opened, it needs the minister's consent (art. 102).[1][2][4]
• The Code requires funding to be confirmed before launch (art. 60) and the notice to state the funding and budget envelope (art. 86). It applies to contracts financed by the State, a local authority or a public establishment, by external aid, or by a State-guaranteed loan (art. 3). For external funding, the financing agreement overrides the Code where they conflict (art. 4). The notices read cite 'BIP' (Public Investment Budget) of a ministry, for example 'BIP MINADER', or 'FEICOM budget' plus the council's own funds.[1][2][11][12]

Always ask why you were rejected

If you lose, write to the buyer to ask why. Do this even if you do not plan to challenge anything. In most public contracts and with funders, you can obtain at least the reasons your bid was rejected, and some organisations offer a debriefing. A private company often owes you nothing, but a polite request costs little.

An answer does three things. You learn whether you fell on a document, on the technical side or on price. You fix that point for the next bid. And if the reason does not match what the file says, you have something concrete, provided you act in time. A short letter is enough: the notice reference, the lot, your request and nothing else.