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 Tender and bid procedures                                                                         

It is a common practice in the business environment that organisations require work done for them, or are supplied with goods/services in bulk. In such cases, it would be of  great help to familiarise yourself with the existing tender guides and bid procedures. The following paragraphs are presented to provide you with information on the existing tender and bidding practices in Ethiopia. In addition to the information available in this toolkit, it would also be wise to read newspapers such as the Ethiopian Herald and Addis Zemen to learn how organisations advertise tenders and bids.

What is a tender?

Tender is a means by which an organisation invites suppliers to submit competitive offers for prices to render their services. There are different types of tenders:
 

1.  Open tendering

Public bodies should prepare the documents and follow the steps required for open tendering provided for in articles 22 – 51 of the procurement manual of the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The following steps should be followed when procuring under alternative methods of procurement, except where specifically provided for.

Procedures for open tendering

The public body should firstly assess its need or demand for the goods or services to be purchased. The need or demand for the goods or services to be purchased should be requested and approved by the authorising unit within the public body.  It should also reflect the interests of all concerned units in the public body. After the need assessment is undertaken, the public body should prepare bidding documents.  These documents should include the following:

• An invitation to tender;

• Instructions to bidders;

• Specifications and detailed descriptions of the goods and services to be purchased;

• Draft of basic terms and conditions of contracts;

• Standard forms for tenders, including the quality and price schedules.
   

2. Two-stage tendering:

First stage:

• Solicitation documents shall call upon suppliers, initial tenders containing their proposals without a tender price;

• The solicitation documents may solicit a proposal relating to the technical, quality or other characteristics of the goods, construction or services as well as to contractual terms and conditions of supply, and, where relevant, the professional and technical competence and qualifications of the suppliers;

• The public body may, in the first stage, engage in negotiations with any supplier or contractor whose tender has not been rejected pursuant to articles 12 and 13 of the procurement manual of MoF concerning any aspect of its tender.

Second stage:

• Public bodies shall invite suppliers whose tenders have not been rejected to submit final tenders with prices with respect to a single set of specifications;

• Public bodies may delete or modify any aspect, originally set forth in the solicitation documents, of the technical or quality characteristics of the goods, construction or services to be procured, and any criterion originally set forth in those documents for evaluating and comparing tenders and for ascertaining the successful tender, and may add new characteristics or criteria that conform with this directive;

• Any such deletion, modification or addition shall be communicated to suppliers or contractors in the invitation to submit final tenders;

• A supplier not wishing to submit a final tender may withdraw from the tendering proceedings without forfeiting any tender security that the supplier may have been required to provide;

• The final tenders shall be evaluated and compared in order to ascertain the successful tender as defined in article 45 of procurement manual of the MoF.
   

3.  Restricted tendering

• When public bodies engage in restricted tendering on the grounds referred to in article 16(a) of the procurement manual of the MoF, it shall solicit tenders from all suppliers from whom the goods, construction or services to be procured are available;

• When the public body engages in restricted tendering on the grounds referred to in article 16(b) of the procurement manual of the MoF, it shall select suppliers from whom to solicit tenders in a non-discriminatory manner and it shall select a minimum of 3 suppliers from the approved suppliers list. For details on Tender procedures you may refer to the booklet of EBDSN entitled "Marketing Strategies".

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