COLLEGE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION (CBE)

DAR ES SALAAM CAMPUS

BCA 2020/2021

BASIC PROCUREMENT PRINCIPLES (PST04101)

TOPIC 7: THE TENDERING PROCESS

Introduction
Bid/tender: Refers to an offer, proposal or quotation made by a supplier, contractor, service
provider or consultant in response to a request made by the procuring entity in terms of a tender
notice, invitation to tender or expression of interest.

Competitive tendering or tendering means the method of procurement whereby suppliers,

service providers or contractors are invited by the procuring entity to compete with each other in
submitting priced tenders of goods, works or services.

Except as otherwise provided for by Public Procurement Regulations (2013) with Amendments
(2016) a procuring entity engaging in procurement of goods, works, services, non-consultant
services or public private partnership, and disposal of public assets by tender shall do so by means
of competitive tendering.

Subject to Public Procurement Act (2011) with Amendments (2016) all procurement and disposal
activities shall be conducted in a manner that maximizes competition and achieve economy,
efficiency, transparency and value for money.

Key Steps Involved in the Tendering Process

Approval of Procurement Process and Preparation of Tender Documents;
Once the requirements have been identified and a competitive tendering procurement method has
been selected and approved to be used, then a Procurement management unit is responsible for the
preparation of the tender documents, whereby some of the inputs are obtained from the user
departments as are the ones initiating the procurement process by submitting their requirements
with the given specifications, statement of requirements, terms of references or bill of quantities.
In situation where the specifications of the requirements are very technical may involve the
collaboration of procurement officers, user departments and technical experts within the

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organization but there are times where the procuring entity may employ consultants to undertake
the assignment.

The tender documents generally include the following components: Section1: Invitation for
Tender; Section 2: Instruction to Tenderers; Section 3: Tender Data Sheet; Session 4: General
Condition of Contract; Section 5: Special Condition of Contract; Section 6: Schedule of
Requirements; Section 7: Technical Specifications; Section 8: Sample Forms; Section 9: Anti-
Bribery Policy/Code of Conduct. The standard bidding documents are prepared and issued by
Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).

Review and Approval of Tender Documents

The procurement management unit will have to submit the prepared tender documents to the
established Tender Board within the procuring entity so as to review and approve them before
being issued to the bidders after tender advertisement. The Tender board examines the
appropriateness and completeness of the tender documents as per requirements of standard bidding
documents so as to ensure compliance and effectiveness in the tendering proceedings.

Tender advertisement and Issuing of Tender documents

After the approval of tender documents, the Head of Procurement Management Unit (HPMU) will
create the tender on Tanzania National e-Procurement System (TANePS) established by PPRA
and available at www.taneps.go.tz where the tender documents will be attached and a tender notice
will be created and published to invite suppliers to participate in the particular tender.

The tender notice shall be published in sufficient time with respect to the selected procurement
method, to enable prospective tenderers to obtain the tender documents and prepare and submit
their responses before the deadline for receipt of tenders which will be done online through
TANePS.

Submission and Custody of Tenders

The suppliers will have to log in on their TANePS accounts so as to be able to submit their tenders
after obtaining the tender documents through the system. All of the tenders will be submitted
online, hence the suppliers have to observe the set deadline by the procuring entities as the system
will not allow any submission after the deadline.

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On the submission of the tenders by the suppliers, the system will not allow tender opening by the
procuring entity until thirty minutes after the lapse of tender submission time. Only tenders
received within the time limit prescribed in the invitation to tender shall be subjected to tender
opening.

Opening of Tenders
All tenders submitted online through TANePS before the deadline for submission shall be opened
by the HPMU with other one or two procurement officers who will be given the role of Tender
Opening Committee (TOC) on the system. The system promptly after tender opening will generate
a tender opening report that will be accessible to all bidders who placed their bids. The report will
indicate the names of the bidders with their price quotes on the advertised tender.

Evaluation of Tenders
The evaluation committee is formed upon the appointment of evaluation members by the
accounting officer with regard to the recommendations made by the head of procurement
management unit, whereby the evaluation process will be conducted online through TANePS.

The evaluation committee shall evaluate on a common basis tenders that have been opened in order
to determine the cost to the PE of each tender in a manner that permits a comparison to be made
between the tenders on the basis of the evaluated costs, but the lowest submitted price, may not
necessarily be the basis for selection for award of a contract.

Any relevant factor or factors in addition to price to be considered in tender evaluation and the
manner in which they will be applied for the purpose of determining the lowest evaluated tender
shall be specified in the tender documents. Tenders are evaluated into two stages namely
preliminary evaluation and detailed evaluation or into three stages with an addition of post
qualification in case prequalification did not take place.

A. Preliminary/eligibility evaluation
Evaluation Committee shall carry out a preliminary or eligibility examination of the tenders to
determine whether or not each tender is substantially responsive to the requirements of the tender
documents, whether the required guarantees or documents such as bid securing declaration,
certificate of incorporation, TIN and VAT certificates etc have been provided, whether the
documents have been properly signed and whether the tenders are otherwise generally in order.

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This exercise aims at eliminating bids which are not responsive to important commercial
requirements, to the extent that they are entirely unacceptable and merit no further consideration.

B. Detailed evaluation
The detailed evaluation is divided into two major parts that includes the technical and financial
evaluations, whereby on the technical evaluation the suppliers’ responses will be examined to see
if they comply with the given specifications and other qualifications such as experience on similar
assignments, financial capacity and personnel technical capacity. While on the financial evaluation
all of the substantially responsive bids must firstly be examined for arithmetic errors, where all
calculations should be checked in the schedule of prices. Any difference between the unit prices
and the total must be corrected for proper comparison to be made on the quoted prices.

C. Post qualification
In the cases where pre-qualification did not take place, the procuring entity may conduct post
qualification on the lowest evaluated bidder for due diligence purposes before the contract award.
The post qualification evaluation criteria may include quality of service, health and safety
standards, previous experience, technical expertise, human, physical and financial resources
capacity.

The Evaluation Committee shall prepare for submission to the HPMU a detailed report on the
evaluation and comparison of tenders, setting out the specific reasons on which its
recommendations for the award of each contract are based whereby the HPMU will be required to
review the report so as to be submitted to the tender board with their recommendations as well for
contract award.

Approval of evaluation report and Award of the Tender

Upon receiving the evaluation report prepared by the evaluation committee, the HPMU shall
review the evaluation report submitted and submit the report and their recommendations to the
Tender Board for approval.

The Tender Board shall review the evaluation report and recommendations made by the HPMU
and may either: approve the recommendation and authorize acceptance of the tender and award a
contract in the form specified in the tender documents; or refuse to authorize recommendation for

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award of the tenders and refer the evaluation to the HPMU with an instruction to re-evaluate the
tenders or re-tendering or call for negotiation before tender award.

Negotiations (if any)

The head of the procurement management unit shall recommend membership of a negotiation team
based on appropriate seniority and experience depending on the value and complexity of the
procurement whereby the appointment shall be made by the accounting officer.

The negotiation team shall include members with relevant mix of skills and experience, including:

a) Knowledge of end-user requirements;

b) Negotiation skills;
c) Procurement and contracting skills;
d) Financial management skills; or
e) Technical skills relevant to the subject of the procurement or disposal.

Negotiations may be undertaken with the lowest evaluated bidder relating to the following areas:

a) a minor alteration to the technical details of the statement of requirements

b) reduction of quantities for budgetary reasons, where the reduction is in excess of any
provided for in the solicitation documents;
c) Price reduction
d) a minor amendment to the special conditions of contract;
e) finalising payment arrangements;
f) agreeing final delivery
g) clarifying details that were not apparent or could not be finalised at the time of bidding, etc

Approval of negotiation minutes and award of tender

The negotiations minutes of the negotiation proceedings between the procuring entity and the
lowest evaluated bidder should be documented and being approved by the tender board before
being included in the contract.

TB shall notify the AO on TB decision within three working days if satisfied so as to issue a letter
of intention to award (after contract award by the tender board on TANePS the accounting officer

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will receive a notification directly in his account for approval so that the HPMU can announce the
evaluation results).

Issue of acceptance letter and contract signing

The accounting officer after being notified with the tender award decision by the tender board
through TANePS will have to approve upon satisfaction on the decision made and the system will
require the HPMU to announce the evaluation results by issuing the letter of intention to award the
tender to the lowest evaluated bidder. The unsuccessful bidders will be given 7 days to raise
complaints upon the decision of the procuring entity.

After 7 days and in absence of any complaint from the unsuccessful bidders, the accounting officer
will issue a letter of acceptance to the lowest evaluated bidder and contract being signed
accordingly. The two parties should sign the contract within the tender validity period.

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