A Public Body has conducted a bidding exercise through the Restricted Bidding Method for the procurement of five PCs, five laser printers, two UPS and one scanner. Bidders were invited to submit a signed Bid Securing Declaration together with their bids. The Technical Specifications mentioned that the UPS should have autonomy of operation of 60 minutes. The standard Quotation Form mentioned that the price shall be fixed and firm.

At examination of bids the following shortcomings are noted:

a) Bidder A has made an arithmetical error in multiplying the unit cost of the printer by the quantity causing a subtotal for this item to be of a lower value which has been carried forward in the total that has been inserted in the Quotation Form. The UPS proposed by this Bidder is for autonomy of operation of only 59 minutes.

b) Bidder B has submitted a Bid Security in the form of a Bank Guarantee as per the format contained in the Bidding Documents for an amount of 2 % of its quoted price. This Bidder has not submitted its Business Trade License as requested in the Bidding Documents.

c) Bidder C has proposed a type of UPS which has autonomy of operation of 45 minutes and the price quoted for this item by this Bidder is 25 % less than the best evaluated bid.

d) Bidder D has quoted for prices to be adjustable to rate of exchange at the time of delivery as allowed for in the Special Conditions of
Contract and submitted a covering letter to this effect despite the fact that he had signed the Quotation Form.

Questions:

(a) If you are a member of the Evaluation Committee in what manner would you qualify the shortcomings of each of the four bidders?

(b) Give the reasons for your position in (a) above.

(c) Explain what actions you would take in respect of each of the shortcomings before proceeding further with the evaluation.