It was always a tough part of the job, but I had to do it. Back when I was a county procurement analyst, I’d open bids for everything from road salt to school bus maintenance. I always tried to work with vendors, but some bids just had to be thrown out right at the bid opening. We'd be there, usually on a Tuesday morning, with the public watching, and I'd open the envelopes. Sometimes the bid form was unsigned. Sometimes the vendor missed acknowledging an addendum. Once, a vendor sent their bid in a box, not an envelope, and it was hard to keep everything in order. Other times, the bid bond was from a surety not on our approved list. And the worst was when the price page arithmetic was off; we couldn't just fix it. I always wondered how these basic errors kept happening. What did your county purchasing department do with bids that had these kinds of mistakes?
From the county side: why your bid got thrown out at the bid opening?
Ask a question- Your county purchasing department likely handled these errors in a similar way to my experience with state term contracts in Georgia; a bid with a material error cannot be considered responsive and must be rejected.
- State and local procurements operate under their own state procurement codes and portal vendor guides, which often have strict rules about bid submission.
- For example, if a bid form is
2 answers
Your county purchasing department likely handled these errors in a similar way to my experience with state term contracts in Georgia; a bid with a material error cannot be considered responsive and must be rejected. State and local procurements operate under their own state procurement codes and portal vendor guides, which often have strict rules about bid submission. For example, if a bid form is unsigned, or if a required addendum acknowledgment is missing, the bid is non-responsive on its face. An arithmetic error on a price page is also a material defect because it makes the price unclear and prevents fair comparison with other bids. Similarly, a bid bond from an unapproved surety means the necessary financial guarantee is not in place. These are not minor technicalities; they are foundational requirements to ensure fairness and transparency in the procurement process. The goal is to treat all bidders equally and avoid giving any firm an unfair advantage by allowing them to correct their submission after the official bid opening.
Your county purchasing department would consider the bid non-responsive, Helen, but the specific process for handling these errors often depends on the type of procurement and the relevant state or local regulations. For federal construction contracts, the Miller Act requires performance and payment bonds for any contract exceeding a certain value. Below that value, the contracting officer selects alternative payment protections. The specific rules for bid bonds and other submission requirements at the state and local level are outlined in the state procurement code and the particular solicitation's instructions to bidders. A bid bond from an unapproved surety means the offeror does not meet a material requirement of the solicitation.