Work through a realistic tender — Facilities & maintenance

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to defend a bid decision and prepare a consistent submission.

Common to all countries

Make a decision that survives delivery

A bid review has three separate gates: admissibility, a credible route to a competitive score, and the ability to deliver at an acceptable return. A high score cannot cure an inadmissible offer; a technically possible offer can still be commercially unsound. Give each unresolved issue an owner and a decision deadline before the submission cut-off.

Assemble the final response from the controlled requirements and evidence registers. Check names, totals, document versions, signatures, portal fields and uploaded files. Use an independent read-through to find contradictions between the method, staffing and price. After a permitted test of the submission workflow, allow time for the actual upload and retain the receipt. A finished PDF on your computer is not a submitted offer.

Worked example — Clean four municipal buildings

This is a fictional teaching case. Quantities, prices and contractual conditions below are assumptions for the exercise, not legal requirements or market benchmarks.

The buyer wants four buildings clean and usable at opening time, including a busy public reception area. The service must handle different surfaces and occupancy patterns. Square metres alone do not describe the workload.

Review position. The team can deliver the base requirement, but one clarification remains open and the extra cost below is not included in its original price. Submission is five working days away; this is a case assumption.

The area schedule excludes a newly opened annex but the site plan includes it. Ask whether the annex is in scope and request surface and occupancy information before estimating productivity.

The rota covers planned work but contains no absence cover. Add a costed replacement arrangement and travel time. A low hourly selling price cannot repair an impossible staffing schedule.

Item	Cost (currency units)
Paid staff time	48,000
Materials and equipment	6,000
Supervision and travel	6,000
Total	60,000

Total cost is 60,000. To retain 20% of the selling price as profit, price is 60,000 ÷ 0.80 = 75,000. If “Replacement staff provision” adds 6,000 to cost without a price increase, profit becomes 9,000, or 12% of price. Preserving 20% would require 82,500, only where the procurement permits that price. A cost increase does not automatically entitle the supplier to a contract price increase.

Country specific — what to verify

Check applicable wages, working-time rules and any staff-transfer obligations for this contract. Verify chemical handling, waste disposal and site access requirements. EU green procurement criteria are a reference; the actual tender determines the requested environmental evidence, alongside applicable law.

Local service schedules and staffing declarations. Use the destination-country module and the actual tender pack. The sources below are references with their own scope; they do not form a single worldwide regime. For the general method, revisit the foundations.

Put it into practice

Prepare a final review with four decisions: admissibility, clarification, return and submission. State the conditions for a yes and the conditions requiring a no. Produce three response headings linked to requirements.

Model answer

Model decision: conditional bid, not immediate approval. Obtain the official clarification, confirm evidence and resources, then decide the price or withdraw before submission. Do not conceal non-compliance in a prohibited qualification. The three response sections are understanding the need, method and resources, then controls and acceptance. Use agreed inspection criteria and records tied to location and time. Track completed corrective actions rather than treating every complaint closure as proof of cleanliness. Reconcile service records with the invoice period.

Keep this worksheet in your working file. The quiz below checks the lesson’s decisions; passing it is neither a professional qualification nor a guarantee of an award.