I’ve written hundreds (in fact - although I’ve never counted - I reckon I must be getting close to a thousand by now) of tender responses, and one thing I’ve learned over the years is that there are plenty of tender traps that can catch you out if you’re not on the ball.
These usually come in the form of information requests that are hidden in the guts of the tender documentation but not explicitly included in the tender submission process and schedules. Yeah, thanks a lot for that, Mr. Tender Issuer!
Let me give you a few examples:
1 Hidden Mandatory Requirements
I once worked on an ATM (Approach to Market) tender with several mandatory requirements. One of these was the inclusion of a “valid and satisfactory Statement of Tax Record, or a receipt demonstrating that a Statement of Tax Record has been requested, from the Australian Taxation Office for the Potential Supplier”.
A receipt for the request for the Statement of Tax Record was received from the ATO and duly attached to the tender submission as part of the submission of tender documents.
What this sneaky little tender issuer (ok, that’s probably not a very polite way to refer to one of the Australian Government’s largest federal departments) did, though, was to reference (in a rather obscure manner, in my humble opinion), a clause in the Conditions of Participation.
This clause, which was pretty obscure, stated that the response would be excluded from consideration if the Statement of Tax Record wasn’t received within four days of the closing date.
Fortunately, I checked with my client, who had received the Statement of Tax Record just before the bid submission was lodged. So, I was able to swap out the request receipt with the actual statement. My point is that this could have been easily missed, and it would have resulted in my client missing out on a lucrative tender.
2 Not including key requirements in the response schedules
Another example relates to a recent tender I completed for a construction company in the Northern Territory. The RFT document included a clause stating that an ASIC Company Search and a Bankruptcy Clearance Search were to be included with the tender response. But neither of these was included in the tender response schedules - so again, this requirement could have been very easy to miss.
The point I’m making here is that it’s super-important to thoroughly read every clause in the RFT document and Conditions of Tendering so you can pick up any hidden surprises like the two I’ve just outlined. The last thing you want to do is put in a heap of effort only to find you’ve been excluded from the evaluation process because of an avoidable omission.
I know how easy it is to overlook these things while preparing those tender responses. So, if you ever need some tender assistance, just give me a shout so I can provide feedback on what you’ve missed and fix it for you. Don’t hesitate to contact me — call me on 0400 514 579 or shoot me an email at pauline@tenderwise.com.au.
In the meantime, happy tendering!
Pauline