Appraising tender prices

Pricing errors

It is not uncommon for extended bill rates to have errors; any errors should be noted. The JCT Tendering Practice Note 2012 recommends that errors are dealt with in 1 of 2 straightforward alternatives.

Under the first alternative, the tenderers should be given details of the errors and allowed the opportunity of confirming or withdrawing the offer. In other words the tenderers would proceed as if the error had not been made.

Under the second alternative, the tenderers should be given the opportunity of confirming the offer or of amending it to correct genuine errors. Should the tenderers elect to amend the offer and the revised tender is no longer the lowest, the offer of the reserve tender should be examined. If the errors are accepted by the tenderers, then the rates in question should be altered and initialled by the tenderers, then the rates in question should be altered and initialled.

Either of these 2 ways should be defined in the preliminaries document that is issued with the tender to confirm the procedure following a tender submission.

Qualifications

The JCT Tendering Practice Note sets out the following guides for dealing with contractor qualifications:

'A tenderer who submits a qualified tender should be given an opportunity to withdraw the qualifications, so as to produce a compliant tender, but without amending the price. If the tenderer refuses to withdraw the qualifications, the tender may need to be rejected'.

The JCT sets out a strict procedure for dealing with the contractor qualifications, as it states that there should be no negotiation with regards to the tender price. Therefore, in terms of tender price appraisal under JCT guidance notes, the initial figure that is submitted should remain throughout the tender evaluation process.