Qualifications of bidders
Bidders are legal persons or other organizations that respond to bidding and participate in bidding competition. In practice, we often encounter some companies bidding in the name of their subsidiaries or subsidiaries in charge of business in different regions. It should be pointed out that legally speaking, a branch company does not have the qualification of a legal person and is not an independent legal person, so bidding in the name of a branch company is invalid. When selecting a subordinate subsidiary to bid, the bidder must carefully select a suitable bidding subject in accordance with the provisions that "the legal representatives of two or more legal persons are the same person, and the parent company, wholly-owned subsidiary and its holding company shall not bid at the same time in the same goods bidding". It is particularly important to note that the selected subsidiaries should fully meet the qualification requirements of bidders in the bidding documents. If the subsidiary cannot meet the corresponding qualification requirements, it should consider participating in the bidding competition in the name of the parent company with strong strength.
Supplier bidding
Usually, if the supplier participates in the bidding, the supplier should obtain the authorization signed by the manufacturer. In 2004, OrderNo. 13 of the Ministry of Commerce, Implementation Measures for International Bidding of Mechanical and Electrical Products (hereinafter referred to as OrderNo. 13), stipulated the number of times that a manufacturer can participate in the same project: "If the bidding products of two or more bidders are produced by the same manufacturer or integrator, it is counted as a bidder. If more than two integrators use the products of the same manufacturer as part of their integrated products, they shall be calculated according to different integrators ". Decree 27 stipulates that only one agent can be entrusted to participate in the bidding for the goods of the same brand and model of the same manufacturer, otherwise it will be invalid. Therefore, bidders must be treated differently according to the actual situation of the project and the specific requirements of the bidding documents.
Cooperative bidding
In large or complex projects, contractors are often required to have qualifications, achievements and abilities in design, supply, construction and installation, and some targets even require bidders to have financing ability. Therefore, bidders usually need to form a consortium to bid. When a consortium bids, it should be noted that the tenderer often has strict regulations on the consortium, such as requiring the consortium members to bear the same and respective responsibilities, which is what we usually call joint liability. At the same time, the members of the consortium should specify the lead person, whose work scope should be the main part of the project or the workload accounts for a large proportion. The lead person shall bear the main responsibilities of contacting the tenderee and organizing the work, including collecting payment for goods. If there is any breach of contract or loss, he shall be liable to the owner first. In addition, the law also stipulates that if the members of the consortium form a consortium with the same professional qualifications and undertake the same work, the qualification of the consortium in this respect shall be subject to the lower qualification unit.
Signature and seal of bidding documents
Because bid evaluation is often based on written materials, it is very important whether the bidding documents are binding on bidders. The so-called binding force means whether the bidding documents are signed by the legal representative or its authorized representative and effectively stamped with the official seal of the bidder. Usually, the tender documents will stipulate which documents need to be signed and which documents need to be stamped. In practice, we often encounter situations in which bidders only use official seals or only use signatures. Whether it is correct or not depends on the provisions of the tender documents. Therefore, the bidder must sign and seal in strict accordance with the provisions of the tender documents. At the same time, if the bidding documents are not signed by the legal representative, the power of attorney signed by the legal representative must be provided in the bidding documents, so that the bidding documents signed by the authorized person are binding on the bidders. Where a consortium bids, the parties to the consortium shall authorize specific personnel to sign the bidding documents. If the tender documents clearly require that the tender documents should be signed by all parties of the consortium, each member of the consortium should also entrust their own representatives to sign the tender documents.
With regard to the power of attorney signed by the legal representative, we also encounter such a special situation in practice: some large multinational companies have several people who have the right to sign, and the power of attorney is signed by one of them. At this time, the signatory of the power of attorney is not necessarily the legal representative. In order to prove that the signature is binding, the bidder shall submit relevant certificates to prove that the authorizer has the right to authorize.
In addition, in the matter of authorization, we should also pay attention to the fact that the authorized person cannot entrust, because according to the general principles of civil law, the entrustment must be confirmed by the original principal, and before that, the validity of authorization should be understood as the validity to be determined.
Submission of bid documents
The submitter of the bid documents shall be the legal representative of the bidder. In some tenders, in order to avoid bidders borrowing qualifications and maintain the seriousness of the tender, when submitting the tender documents, the personnel submitting the tender documents are required to show relevant certificates. For example, the bidding documents for a system project of rail transit require: "The legal representative of the bidder or his authorized representative must bring and present the following documents when submitting the bidding documents (the copy is invalid): the qualification certificate of the legal representative; Power of attorney of the legal representative (power of attorney is not required if the legal representative comes in person); Id card of the legal representative of the bidder or its authorized representative. If the supporting documents submitted by the bidder are incomplete, the bidding documents submitted by the bidder will not be accepted. " The supporting documents issued by a large multinational group are all copies, which were rejected by the relevant tendering agency. Afterwards, it was learned that the group followed the project for two or three years, and foreign experts made many trips to understand the characteristics of the project and re-optimize the bidding project, which cost millions of yuan. However, due to such negligence, its bidding documents have no chance to be displayed, and the desire of relevant scientific and technical personnel to contribute to the project and create a reputation for the company has also been dashed, and the tenderer is likely to lose an opportunity to obtain an excellent plan and an excellent winning bidder.
perform
Because the project subject to tender often has a certain scale, it is hard to imagine that the tenderer will contract the project to a unit without similar performance to complete it. To this end, bidders often explicitly require bidders to provide proof of similar project performance in the bidding documents. It is worth noting that the performance used by some units may belong to their subordinate units, or their roles in similar projects are quite different from the bidding requirements. It should be said that the performance of affiliated units should not be understood as the performance of bidders, and whether the performance that is quite different from the bidding requirements is accepted depends on the tenderer or the bid evaluation experts.
Preparation and format of bidding documents
Tendering documents often specify the sealing, marking, number of originals and copies of bidding documents, and the production of amendments. Some tender documents may also have special requirements for the tender documents, such as the length, font and size of the tender documents, the format and marks of the drawings, the names or marks of bidders that do not appear in the hidden bid, and the technical bid that does not include the commercial bid in the two-stage bid evaluation. These provisions are varied, and some of them are often clearly regarded as invalid bids in the bidding documents. If bidders are not careful, they may face the fate of early exit.
bid guarantee
The purpose of establishing a bid bond is to ensure the seriousness of the bidding work, and to ensure that the tenderee is free from the losses caused to the relevant parties by the bidder withdrawing the bid within the bid validity period, failing to sign or open a performance bond after winning the bid, or failing to pay the relevant bidding agency fees. Bid bond is a means to restrain the bidder's behavior economically. Because, when the bidder defaults, especially after winning the bid, the tenderer will have to re-select the winning bidder. Sometimes, the tenderer even has to re-select the winning bidder through re-tendering. In this way, the tenderer will have to re-invest manpower, material resources and financial resources, and may also have to face the reality of project delay. After the bid bond is established, the losses caused to the tenderer due to the fault of the bidder can be compensated to the minimum by confiscating the bond, which is conducive to protecting the interests of the tenderer. Therefore, the bid bond is a necessary link in the bidding procedure. In this respect, it is easy for the bidder to forget the bid bond, or the amount of the bid bond is insufficient, or the format of the bid bond offered by the bidder cannot be accepted by the tenderer, or the bid validity period is regarded as the validity period of the bid bond, resulting in the bid bond being invalid. Of course, the consequence of the above situation is invalid bidding.
Technical bidding documents
If the commercial bidding documents mainly reflect the qualifications, qualifications, achievements and quotations of the bidders, then the technical bidding documents are the specific technical responses of the bidders to the bidding contents, which tell the tenderee what configuration, process and guarantee measures the bidders will adopt to complete the project with good quality and quantity. Simply copying the technical content of the tenderer or generally expressing no objection will usually be regarded as a waste bid. In an international tender for emergency generators, we learned that an enterprise has considerable strength, but we couldn't find its technical documents when evaluating bids. When I called the manager, I got the answer: We didn't provide the technical documents, because we could all do as you asked. The members of the bid evaluation committee are in distress situation, and the result can be imagined.
Some key indicators will also be set in some tender documents. If the key indicators are not reached, it will be regarded as invalid bidding. Some bidders questioned the key indicators after failing to win the bid, and thought that the tenderee was biased. The author thinks that it is reasonable for the tenderer to have his own clear requirements, but the requirements should ensure full competition.
On Enterprise Honesty
In bidding, honesty is also a very serious issue. Some bidders often exaggerate their technical parameters, or make up their achievements, or promise what they cannot deliver. Sometimes the tenderer clearly knows that the bidder has false bidding behavior, but suffers from refusing to bid without basis. Such an approach may make the bidder win the bid once, but the damage to the reputation of the enterprise is eternal, and far-sighted enterprises should avoid it. It is worth noting that this situation is gradually changing at present. For example, the bid evaluation committee clarifies that the bidder is required to provide conclusive evidence, or adds relevant clauses in the bidding documents to restrict the bidder's false bidding behavior, stipulating that if the bidder's false bidding behavior is found, even if the contract is being executed, the qualification of winning the bid can be cancelled.
The above lists are some situations that tend to be overlooked by the tendering units. In addition, although all tenders are bound by the Bidding Law, every tender, such as survey, design, construction, supervision, equipment and materials bidding, etc. Depending on its nature, different methods are applied according to its characteristics, different regulatory agencies and different interpretations of waste objects. If the bidding documents do not meet the main parameter requirements marked with an asterisk (*) in the technical specifications of the bidding documents or are not supported by technical data, and the general parameters in the technical specifications of the bidding documents exceed the maximum allowable deviation range or the maximum number of items, the response in the technical specifications of the bidding documents is inconsistent with the facts or a false bid will be considered as invalid. Decree No.27 stipulates that a bidder shall submit two or more bid documents with different contents, or submit two or more bid documents for the same bidding goods in one bid document, which is not declared as the final bid document, the name or organizational structure of the bidder is inconsistent with that in the pre-qualification, no valid supporting documents are provided, and the bidding agreement of the parties to the consortium is not attached to the bid of the consortium. OrderNo. Interim Provisions on Bid Evaluation Committees and Measures 12 jointly issued by seven ministries and commissions, including the State Planning Commission, clearly stipulates that if the completion period of a project subject to tender specified in the tender documents exceeds the time limit specified in the tender documents and obviously does not meet the requirements of technical specifications and standards, its packaging method, goods inspection standards and methods specified in the tender documents do not meet the requirements of the tender documents, and the tender documents contain conditions unacceptable to the tenderee, they are regarded as non-substantive response tender documents and are invalid. It should be noted that Order 12 has very strict technical requirements for bidders, and the meaning of "with conditions unacceptable to the tenderee" is very broad.
In short, as a qualified bidder, we should pay attention to the accumulation of relevant laws and regulations. Secondly, after getting the tender documents, it is not difficult to study them carefully. Pay attention to the applicable laws of the tender documents, sort out the conditions of invalid bidding, and consult the tenderee or bidding agency if you encounter any unclear places. I hope that the author's summary of these experiences will be helpful to the majority of bidders in the future bidding work, and I also hope that more manufacturers can master bidding skills and further broaden their business sources.