Evaluation and award: what happens after you submit (Ivory Coast)

Once the packages are opened, your bid disappears into a committee and you often hear nothing for weeks, sometimes months. That silence is normal, but your work does not stop: the committee can write to you at any moment, and a late reply can eliminate you. Here is what happens in that time, in order, and what you have to do.

What the committee does, in order

The evaluation committee applies the grid and the criteria written in the tender file, and nothing else. The usual order is as follows.

Administrative compliance
Are the required documents there, valid and signed? Does the bid security comply? This is where expired certificates and missing forms fall. In some files the committee accepts that a non-essential document be supplied afterwards. Do not count on it.
Technical review
Does your bid answer what was asked? The committee checks the eliminatory criteria, references, staff, equipment and schedule, and gives a score if the file provides for one. Often, a bid that does not reach the technical minimum never has its price looked at.
Financial review
The committee redoes the sums, corrects errors, adjusts prices so they can be compared, applies any preferences and looks for abnormally low bids.
Ranking and final check
It ranks the bids and proposes a winner. Some files provide at this stage for a closer check of the top-ranked firm: financial capacity, references, sometimes a visit. If it fails, the committee moves to the next one.

After the committee's opinion, the award often goes through a validation: an oversight body or the funder's no-objection, depending on the contract. That is one reason the result can take time.

Lowest evaluated bid or weighted score

The file says which of these two methods applies. Works, supplies and ordinary services most often use the first, and consulting the second.

The lowest evaluated bid. Among the bids that meet the requirements, the contract goes to the one with the lowest evaluated price. The evaluated price can differ from the price read aloud: error corrections, adjustments, preferences. A high technical score earns nothing extra here. You just have to clear the bar.

The weighted score. The committee scores technical quality and price, then combines them using the weights written in the file. The best combined score wins, even without the lowest price. This is the classic consulting case, with a financial envelope opened only for those who reached the minimum technical score.

After a consulting ranking, the contract is generally negotiated with the top-ranked firm. In a classic tender, negotiating the price is usually forbidden. With private companies and some organisations, on the other hand, it can be common: see Who is buying and which rules apply.

If the committee writes to you

The committee can ask for a clarification: an unreadable document, a date to confirm, a reference to clear up. The request comes in writing and gives a time limit, often very short.

Reply at once, and in writing. Watch the e-mail address and phone number you gave in the bid, including when travelling. A late reply can be treated as no reply.
Reply only to what is asked. You are clarifying your bid, not writing a better one.
You cannot change your price, or anything that would change the substance of the bid. The only usual price change is the committee's correction of a calculation error.

Do not try to reach committee members privately either. Any attempt to influence them can get your bid rejected, and bring heavier sanctions.

Preferences and abnormally low bids

Some rules grant a preference, for example to national, regional or local firms, or to small businesses. It often takes the form of a margin applied only for the comparison: the foreign competitor's price is raised for the calculation, and the contract is then signed at your real price. If you qualify, attach what the file asks for to prove it, because it is not always applied automatically.

If your price seems abnormally low, the committee can ask you to justify it. Have your quotes and price breakdown ready: see Price your financial bid.

The rule in Ivory Coast

Evaluating bids

A three-member evaluation committee first reviews the administrative documents, then analyses the technical and financial offers confidentially against the tender's criteria only, and proposes a ranking. The COJO then judges in session, with the analysis report delivered three days earlier, and chooses the compliant offer judged most economically advantageous (arts. 14.2.5, 71, 72 and 75).[1]
A single criterion is used: either price, for standardised supplies or services, or an overall price or cost that can take into account life-cycle cost, deadlines, after-sales service, quality, staff experience and other items listed in the tender (art. 72).[1]
The committee may question bidders only to clarify their offer and to correct purely arithmetical and carry-over errors. No change to prices or conditions is allowed. Written answers must arrive within three working days and cannot change the price or make a non-compliant offer compliant. Variants count only if the tender allows them (art. 71.3).[1]
An abnormally low (or high) offer is identified by the formula in the tender document. It can be rejected by reasoned decision only after a written request for justification, to be answered within three working days (art. 74).[1]
A candidate may submit only one bid per lot, alone or in a group. If it does both, the bids of the candidate and of the group are void (arts. 42.2 and 71.4).[1]
Opening and judging must be completed within 15 days, extendable by at most 7 days for proven complexity, with the DGMP's agreement (art. 75.6). Commission members may not sit if they hold an interest in a bidder, on pain of nullity (art. 14.2.6).[1]
For consulting firms, the selection methods are: least cost (SMC), fixed budget (SCBD), quality and cost (SFQC), quality only (SFQ) and consultant qualifications (SQC, for small contracts or urgency, using terms of reference sent to at least three firms). Technical offers are opened and evaluated first, and only technically qualified firms have their financial offer opened (art. 62).[1]

Preferences and SMEs

Community preference: a bid from a firm headquartered in a UEMOA state may get a price preference margin of 15% at most, if compliant and within the margin of the most advantageous compliant bid from a non-community bidder. The Code says "may" for this preference (arts. 1 and 73.1).[1]
Preference for local SMEs: a margin of 15% at most must be granted to the bid that gives a significant share of the contract to a local SME (co-contracting or subcontracting) or proposes a minimum number of key national experts. In a tender, the buyer must apply it to a bid that plans to subcontract at least 30% of the contract to a local SME. The preferences of arts. 73.1 and 73.2 do not combine, and must be provided for in the tender (arts. 43.4 and 73.2).[1]
Local authorities: a bidder that plans to subcontract at least 30% of the contract value to a craftsperson or craft business may get a preference margin of 5% at most, which can be combined with the community preference (art. 73.3).[1]
Reservation for SMEs: each contracting authority reserves at least 30% of the forecast value of its works, supplies and services contracts for SMEs every year. The list of these contracts appears in its procurement plan, and the tender document sets the number and size of reserved lots. The buyer writes an annual report on these awards (art. 19.4).[1]
Contracts arising from craft activities must be split into lots to ease access for craft businesses, and buyers may split into lots to ease SME applications (art. 21.1).[1]

Extending bid validity

Your bid is valid for a period set by the file. If the evaluation runs past that period, the buyer can ask you to extend it.

Take this request seriously and reply within the time given. As a general rule:

you can refuse, and you then leave the competition without losing your security;
if you accept, you keep your price unless a clause says otherwise, and you must have the bank extend your security if its date becomes too short.

Before replying, redo your sums. Do your suppliers still hold their prices? Is the contract still profitable at this amount? Never leave a request unanswered, because your bid may drop out without you having decided it.

Reading a provisional award

The provisional award, sometimes published as an award notice, is the decision of the committee or the competent authority before the contract is signed. It usually opens a period during which bidders can challenge it, before any signature.

Depending on the country, it appears in the procurement journal, on the public portal or on the buyer's website, and bidders sometimes receive a letter. Read it carefully:

The winner's name and the amount. Compare with what was read at opening. A difference may be explained by a correction, or give you a question to ask.
The lot. Check that it really is yours.
The time limits. Write down the publication or receipt date at once: it is often what starts the clock for an appeal. See Challenge a decision.
The grounds for rejection, when they are given.

A provisional award is not yet a contract. If you are selected, do not start anything or buy anything before notification and the steps that follow. They are described in Deliver the contract and get paid.

The rule in Ivory Coast

The COJO's decision is provisional and becomes final only when the contract is approved. From the validation threshold (300 million, 100 million for local authorities), the DGMP gives a no-objection opinion within 10 days, on the opening and award minutes and the analysis report sent within three days. Below it, the award is checked afterwards (art. 75; decree 2021-869, art. 7).[1][2][11]
The buyer notifies the award to the chosen bidder within three days, informs the others of the rejection of their bid, publishes the results in the BOMP and on the portal and posts them on its premises within three days. An unsuccessful bidder can obtain the analysis report (copy costs at its own expense) and the buyer must answer it within three days (arts. 75.4 and 76.1).[1]
After results are published or notified, the buyer waits seven working days before signing. During that time a bidder who objects must act or lose the right. The winner is invited to sign within three working days, the contract is signed and numbered, then approved: the DGMP checks the draft in 5 days, the approver has 7 days and notification of approval follows within 3 days (arts. 76.3, 78, 82 to 84 and 88).[1]
A contract must be awarded, approved and notified before any performance begins. An unapproved contract cannot financially bind the buyer. The contract enters into force only after approval, notification and effective access to the site, recorded in minutes. The start order requires the performance guarantee. The holder pays the regulation fee and has the contract registered (arts. 10, 88 and 89).[1]
A tender may be declared unsuccessful if no bid can be accepted. If only the budget is insufficient, the buyer must first consider reducing the scope of works, supplies or services, except for lump-sum contracts. A new tender follows, with an amended file (art. 77).[1]

Always ask why you were rejected

If you lose, write to the buyer to ask why. Do this even if you do not plan to challenge anything. In most public contracts and with funders, you can obtain at least the reasons your bid was rejected, and some organisations offer a debriefing. A private company often owes you nothing, but a polite request costs little.

An answer does three things. You learn whether you fell on a document, on the technical side or on price. You fix that point for the next bid. And if the reason does not match what the file says, you have something concrete, provided you act in time. A short letter is enough: the notice reference, the lot, your request and nothing else.

Evaluation and award: what happens after you submit