When a tender changes: how to handle corrigenda and addenda

A tender is not fixed when it is published. Buyers issue corrigenda, addenda and clarification responses that change specifications, eligibility, quantities, submission formats and deadlines. Bids are routinely rejected because they answered the original document rather than the amended one — and the bidder never knew.

1. What an amendment can change

• The deadline — extended, and occasionally brought forward.
• Technical specifications — often after a supplier points out that the original was unbuildable or written around one product.
• Eligibility criteria — turnover, experience or certification thresholds relaxed or tightened. This can make you newly eligible, or newly excluded.
• Quantities, lots or scope — which changes your price, sometimes fundamentally.
• Submission mechanics — formats, envelope structure, number of copies.

Clarification replies matter as much as formal corrigenda. In most systems the buyer’s written answers to bidder questions are contractually part of the tender document, and they are circulated to everyone — including answers to questions you did not ask and would not have thought of.

2. The failure mode

It is almost always the same: a team downloads the document on day one, works on it for three weeks, and submits without going back to the portal. Meanwhile two corrigenda were issued. Nothing about their bid is wrong except that it answers a document that no longer exists.

Email notification is not a safety net. Portals notify inconsistently, notifications go to whoever registered rather than whoever is writing, and mail filters do the rest.

3. A routine that works

1. Re-check the notice page at fixed points — when you start, at the midpoint, the day before the clarification deadline, and on the morning you submit. Put these in the bid plan as tasks with an owner.
2. Keep a version log. One line per amendment: date, what changed, what it changes in your bid, who actioned it. This is also your defence if the award is disputed.
3. Re-read the eligibility clauses after every amendment, not just the technical ones. A changed turnover threshold is easy to miss and fatal.
4. Ask your own questions early. Clarification windows close well before the deadline, and a question asked on the last day rarely gets answered in time to help.
5. Re-price when scope moves. A quantity change of ten percent is not a rounding error; it moves your unit rates and sometimes your bid/no-bid.

4. When an amendment should change your mind

Some amendments are a signal, not just an update. A specification rewritten mid-tender to match one manufacturer’s product, or an eligibility bar raised to a level only the incumbent clears, tells you what the buyer wants. Deciding not to bid on that basis is a legitimate and often correct decision — see bid cost and budget strategy. A deadline extended twice, by contrast, usually means too few compliant bids arrived: that is an opportunity.

5. How FreeTender handles amendments

Where we can detect that a notice has changed after we first indexed it — a moved deadline, a revised value — the change is recorded on the tender page rather than silently overwritten, so you can see that something moved and when. Corrigendum notices themselves are attached to the notice they amend rather than listed as separate opportunities. That said, the source portal is always authoritative: check it before you submit.