New user? Register as member

Practical and Legal Aspects of Bids & Tender Process Management for Non-Legal PMEs

Tenders are recommended for most procurement. Any competitive tender process should be as transparent as possible. Both the procurement office and bidders must be aware of the legalities and practical issues regarding the tendering process. Tender adjudication and selection of reliable supplier should be based on written criteria.

The procurement office is to obtain the required items in the correct quantities and specifications and at the most favourable prices and secures firm supply contracts. The tender process includes the selection and preparation of tender documents (invitation to treat) and contracts, collation of offers, tender adjudication & supplier selection, contract award, performance monitoring of suppliers and enforcement of contract terms. Timely and accurate information is important at the different stages of the tendering process - giving information for tender documents, collating offers for adjudication, issue notifications of award and purchase orders.

Objective

Outline

1. Pre-Tender Assessments

• The scope of the contract
• Type and Quality of Goods and Services required
• Mode of delivery of services
• Factors affecting the contract - time, cost, complexity

2. Formation of a Contract

• The 2 stage contract in Tender Process
• Invitation to treat
• The Request For Tender (RFT)
  - Key contents of RFT
  - Clarity in drafting of the specifications in the RFT
  - Identifying relevant Selection criteria for the project
• Offer & Acceptance
• Counter-offer destroy original offer
• Consideration = suffering
• Intention to Create Legal Relations
• Practical Tips in Documentation - drafting disclaimer
• Risk Management in Tender Process
• Non-binding relationship
• Case-scenario

3. The legal status of a Request for Tender

• "Invitation to Treat" or "Offer"
• The concept of a process contract

4. Legal obligation towards bidders

• Rejecting non-compliant bids & accepting only compliant bids
• Issue of using undisclosed criteria in evaluating bids
• Duty to act fairly
• Fair and Equal Treatment to all Bidders in Tender Process
• Evaluation and Selection of Tenders
  - Key principles in the Evaluation of Tenders
  - How to evaluate Non-Price Criteria
  - Clarifying tender submissions that may be unclear
  - Weighting of criteria and scoring

5. Other issues in tender process

• Anti-Competitive practices
• Effect / Losses caused to Tenderers
• Negligence

Who should attend

Executives, managers, contractors, engineers, architects, finance and company personnel and business persons who need to understand the practicalities and legalities in tender process management, including tender / project owners and companies who are considering to participate in tenders.

Profile of Catherine Tay

Catherine Tay has over 35 years of lecturing experience as an Associate Professor lecturing business law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School. She is an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. She is also a barrister-at-law (of Lincoln’s Inn, United Kingdom). She is an author of more than 8 law books, including her best-seller book title called "Contract Law - A layman Guide".

She studied law at Queen Mary College, University of London and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and with a Master of Laws, in which she specialised in Company, Shipping, Insurance and Marine Insurance Laws.

She has facilitated seminars and in-house training courses for many business law topics such as tenancy agreements, contract administration management, procurement contracts, legal and practical aspects of tender management, Service Level Agreements and Outsourcing contracts, oil and gas contract management, insurance contracts, Intellectual Property Laws and PDPA data privacy laws. She is an examiner on law subjects for a number of professional bodies and universities in Singapore and overseas. She has lectured at the NUS Extension in professional and business management law courses.

She was an adjunct lecturer at NUS Institute of System Science, in IT outsourcing contracts for over 20 years. She is the Honourable Legal Advisor for Singapore Optometric Association, as well as for the Singapore Institute of Engineering Technologists.