20.23 Opening tenders

(a) All the tenders for a contract must be opened together.

(b) Tenders must be opened in the presence of the head of service who invited them and the strategic procurement and shared services manager or officers they have authorised.

(c) Tenders must be recorded on a tender return form by the head of service who invited them and the strategic procurement and shared services manager or officers they have authorised. The strategic procurement and shared services manager must keep the form and any successful tenders for as long as the final contract is kept - see 20.25(a).

(d) If a tender includes a condition that was not in the tender documents and accepting the condition would give the tenderer an unfair advantage over other tenderers, the tenderer must remove the condition or withdraw the tender.

(e) If there seems to be a mistake in a tender, the tenderer will be asked to confirm that there is no mistake or withdraw the tender. This does not apply to arithmetic errors, which can be corrected by the head of service.

(f) The council must not negotiate with any tenderer outside the negotiated tendering procedure (20.18).

(g) Documents from unsuccessful tenderers must be kept by the head of service who invited them for 12 months after the start of the contract.

Page last reviewed 22 Oct 2008