Civil Engineering Project Management (4th Edition)

72 Civil Engineering Project Management
Qualifications attached to tenders
Some tenderers may attach qualifications to their tender, usually set out in
their covering letter. Qualifications which simply refer to some minor interpretation
of a statement in the documents can usually be left for later agreement.
But some qualifications may deal with a matter of considerable importance
that changes part, or all, of the basis of contract as set out in the contract documents.
Some employers have rules which require qualified offers of this kind
to be rejected out of hand: if so, this should be made clear in the Instructions
to Tenderers.
An offer which is qualified in some important respect may give a tenderer
an unfair advantage over other tenderers. For instance, a qualification that tendered
prices are subject to increase if rates of wages ruling at the time of tendering
increase, would invalidate a tender if the contract documents contain
no such provision. On the other hand, a tenderer may submit a more subtle
qualification, such as ‘Our prices are dependent upon being able to complete
the contract within X months’, where the months X are less than the period for
completion stated in the contract documents. The problems this can lead to are
discussed in Section 6.9.
A contractor can, of course, always submit an offer in accordance with the
contract documents and add a second offer which proposes some reduction
on the former offer if some qualifying condition is accepted.
Whether a qualified offer can be accepted or not depends upon the powers
and restraints under which the employer operates. A private person or company,
subject to no restraint, can accept any tender. But a public authority or
utility will be bound by standing rules and perhaps EC or other rules also;
while a project funded by one of the international funding agencies may come
under rules that preclude any qualification being accepted which could be
inferred as granting a favour to one tenderer and not to others.
In some cases specific alternatives are allowed in the contract documents.
These most often refer to methods of constructing major temporary works, such
as cofferdams for bridge foundations; river diversion works for construction
of a dam, etc. The contractor may be required to quote a price for following a
design shown in the contract drawings, but be permitted to offer an alternative
design of his own. The option has to be made fully clear in the contract documents,
and full details of the tenderer’s alternative design have to be provided.
Checking tenders
Detailed consideration of tenders will usually start with an arithmetic check of
the lowest three or four offers which are free of unacceptable qualifications. Any
arithmetic errors found should be dealt with in a manner which is set out in
the Instructions to Tenderers. Usually the unit rates quoted for items are taken
as correct, and all consequent multiplications and additions are arithmetically