Can I Challenge An Unsuccessful Tender Outcome?

Completing a tender application takes time and effort (not to mention resources and often money). If, after all of that, your bid is unsuccessful, it can be a frustrating experience. Your immediate reaction is likely to be to contest the buyer’s decision, but is that something you can do?

In this article, we take a look at the possible reasons for challenging an unsuccessful tender application, as well as how to go about doing so.

Reasons for challenging a tender outcome

You can’t challenge a tender outcome simply because you lost the bid. You need valid grounds for disputing the result of the tender writing process. This generally involves situations where the tender guidelines have not been followed, either by the winning vendor or the buyer. These are some common examples of valid challenges:

• the successful vendor’s bid was unrealistically low
• your response was not scored correctly, suggesting that it was not read completely by the buyer
• the correct tender process was not followed
• the tender documentation favoured the winning bidder
• there was inappropriate negotiation between the vendor and the winning bidder
• you suspected bribery or corruption

What does a challenge involve?

It’s not enough to state your reason for a challenge. To formally dispute the outcomes of the tender process, you must be able to demonstrate that the vendor failed to comply with their own award criteria. You (or your bid writing consultants) need to go through the tender guidelines in detail to locate objective evidence where the rules were broken or the guidelines disregarded. However badly you feel you’ve been treated, emotion will not lead to a successful challenge – only verifiable facts.

When should you make your challenge?

You don’t have to wait until your bid fails to challenge the tender process. If the tender fails to comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, you can challenge them at the initial tender stage. Examples of this are where the criteria are altered midway through the process, or the ITT documents present instructions that are unclear. Under the Regulations, you have 30 days to lodge a challenge from the date you first became aware of the discrepancies in the process.

If you are challenging the tender outcome and the final decision rather than the initial process documents, then you have ten days from the notification of the contract award to submit your dispute. This is known as the standstill period and runs prior to the formal procurement period. Challenges submitted in this period have a greater chance of success, as the winning bidder will not have ordered materials or received any advance payment at this stage – both of which can complicate matters down the road.

Help with challenging a tender process

Here at Your Tender Team, we are experienced bid writing consultants with a long history in the field of tender writing. If you have been unsuccessful in your bid attempt and are looking for assistance with your next tender, we can help you. Call us today on 0116 218 2700 for a free consultation and see what we can do for you.