Contrary to what many people think, a bidding contract is not signed immediately after the winner is announced.
In fact, for the bidding process to take place within legal terms, some steps are still necessary, such as the qualification phase and the appeal phase.
But what are the qualification phase and the appeal phase? Read our text below and clear up any doubts you may have on the subject!
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I won the bid, what are the next steps?
Okay, so you've become interested in the world of bidding, signed up for one and won? What now? What's the next step?
First of all, you need to keep in mind that it will still take a while for the sale to be completed, as your company needs to go through a phase called “qualification”.
The qualification phase is for the government to ensure that the companies it is doing business with have all their documents up to date and are complying with labor laws. Ultimately, it is a way of preventing fraud.
During the qualification phase, you will have to collect all the documentation required in the notice and you must ensure that it is completely in order.
Another very important step in the qualification phase is the provision of a guarantee by the company that wins the bidding process.
To find out whether the tender you participated in requires any type of guarantee, you need to check the notice and see whether it is necessary or not.
If you need to offer a guarantee, you have 3 options: pay a cash deposit, take out financing with a bank, or take out a surety bond.
Of the three options, surety bonds stand out as the best, most affordable and easiest to obtain. While cash guarantees can affect the company's cash flow, financing from a bank requires extensive documentation.
Surety bonds, on the other hand, can be done quickly and easily, with the policy being issued on the same day through digital platforms.
Here, at the Public Procurement Portal, we have Mapse , a solution that can help you find the best value for money surety bonds on the market.
If you want to know more about surety bonds and their importance for the bidding process, you can also read the other text we wrote on the subject:
Surety bond: why require the contract during the bidding process?
In some cases, the government may require you to send a sample of the product you purchased. If this happens, make sure you do it as soon as possible, as even a small delay can cause problems in the future.
It should be noted that, in some municipalities, it is mandatory for the public administration to try to negotiate an even greater discount.
Once these phases have been overcome, the so-called “appeal phase” begins.
At this point, the government, at the request of other bidders, may question your documentation and samples. They may also question the reason why any of the companies was disqualified.
If the appeal filed by other bidders has legal validity, that is, if a bidder who offered a better price than yours was disqualified without justification, then you may lose the bid, which will be awarded to another company.
Once this phase is complete, it is time for awarding and approval. Contracts are drawn up from this point onwards.
Finally, it is interesting to highlight that, even if you did not offer the best price, or if you won the bid but ended up losing in the appeal phase, the prices you offered remain stored in a database to be used in cases of need.
In other words, even if you lost the bid, there is still a chance that your services will be contracted. It may happen that the winning company does not pass one of the qualification stages or withdraws from the contract.
In these cases, the public authorities use this database to find the bidder who offered the second best proposal and so on, until the bidding process is executed.
What are my responsibilities after winning the bid?
The obligations of the company that wins a bidding process will generally vary greatly depending on the contracted object, the contracting regime, the bidding method and the specific legislation of each region of the country.
All this information is normally provided in the bidding notices.
And the contractor?
Just like the responsibilities of the companies that win the bids, the obligations and responsibilities of the public authorities in a bidding process vary from case to case.
In other words, obligations may change depending on the contracted object, the contracting regime, the bidding method and the specific legislation of each region of the country.
In this case, all this information is also already described and provided for in the notices.
How important is it to have your documentation up to date?
How important is it to have your documentation up to date?
Having your documentation up to date is very important for anyone who wants to sell to the government, as the lack of these supporting documents can cause you to lose the bid even after offering the best offer.
The government normally requires this large number of documents to prove a company's qualification to be its supplier.
After all, the government is a qualified buyer. Although the government is more bureaucratic, it is very difficult for the government not to pay the winner of a bid that delivered the contracted products and/or services.
So it is only fair that suppliers are also qualified. That is why economic mobile phone number database and financial qualification, which can come in the form of contractual guarantees, is so important.
It is a way for the government to avoid negotiating with ill-intentioned businesspeople who want to take advantage of and harm the government.
Furthermore, up-to-date documentation also serves to prove that your company is operating within the law, paying the correct salary to its employees and operating in accordance with the law.
Ultimately, it makes no sense for the State to do business with companies that do not comply with the laws defined by the State itself.
What is the appeal phase after winning the bid?
What is the appeal phase after winning the bid?
The appeal phase is the bidding phase that occurs immediately after the announcement of the winners. During this phase, bidders who do not agree with the winner or who feel that they have been disqualified without justification can file an appeal.
Once a resource has been requested in a tender, it is up to the public administration to assess the validity of this resource and make a decision.
Why should I be aware of this?
It is important to pay attention to the appeal phase because it may happen that you win a bid and the appeal presented by other bidders is valid.
In this case, if the other bidder actually offered a more advantageous proposal and was disqualified without a plausible justification, then the public authority is obliged to cancel the deal with your company and close with the true winner of the process.
However, it is important to remember that, even so, the government may ultimately want to do business with your company.
This is because the winning company may have a problem in its qualification phase or simply withdraw from the contract, as it does not have the capacity to supply the products or services contracted in the bidding process.
What is awarding and approval in bidding?
The award is the act through which the public administration assigns the object of the bidding to the winning bidder.
In other words, it is the moment when the public authority actually sends the service order to the company that wins the bidding process.
Homologation, in turn, is the act by which the entire bidding process is ratified. It is the moment in which all acts are approved so that they produce the necessary legal effects.
I won the bid: now what, can I sign the contract?
I won the bid: now I can sign the contract
Not only can you sign the contract, but you should! Closing a deal with the government is a great way to bring visibility and prestige to your company, after all, you will be closing a deal with the largest buyer in the country!
However, as we have seen, the process is not as quick as some people imagine.
First of all, the company must go through the qualification phase, in which it will prove its qualification to sell to the government.
After that, there is still the appeal phase, in which another bidder, if correct, may end up winning the bid ahead of you.
However, remembering again: even in these cases, it is important to pay attention to announcements from the government, as there may be a problem with the winner and then the government will want to close a deal with your company.
What happens if I am late in signing the contract?
If the winner of the contest does not sign the contract within the deadline established in the notice, he runs the risk of losing the bid altogether.
This is because public administration wants speed in its processes, that is, as it naturally has many stages, it is necessary that all of them take place within the deadline so that the contracted products and services arrive as quickly as possible.
Therefore, in cases where the winning bidder delays signing the contract, the public authority files a request for the execution of the bidding process and puts the second-place bidder ahead of the winner.
I won the bid: what now, should I take out a surety bond?
The answer to this question is: it depends. If some form of guarantee is required in the notice, then you should definitely take out a surety bond .
Today, according to the New Bidding Law , once a bidder wins a bid, he has 3 options: pay a cash deposit, take out financing at a bank or take out a surety bond.
All of this is described in detail in Art. 96 of the New Bidding Law ( Law No. 14,133/21 ):
Art. 96. At the discretion of the competent authority, in each case, provision of a guarantee may be required, subject to the provisions of the notice, for contracts for works, services and supplies.
§ 1º The contractor shall be entitled to choose one of the following types of guarantee: I - cash or public debt securities issued in written form, registered in a centralized settlement and custody system authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil, and assessed by their economic values, as defined by the Ministry of Economy; II - surety insurance; III - bank guarantee issued by a bank or financial institution duly authorized to operate in the country by the Central Bank of Brazil.
Among these three possibilities, the best of all is certainly the surety bond, as it is a cheaper alternative and much easier to do.
While collateral can end up hurting your company's cash flow, financing from a bank is usually time-consuming and requires a huge pile of documents.
The same does not happen when we are talking about surety insurance. Nowadays, with automated and completely online processes, the surety insurance policy contracted is already issued on the same day of the request.
In other words, choosing the surety insurance modality is much more advantageous for both the contracted company and the public authorities, as it speeds up the process, or, in other words, makes it faster and more efficient.
At Mapse, you can get an insurance quote online in just 30 seconds!
If you don't even know where to start looking for warranty insurance, you can take a look at Mapse , a Public Procurement Portal solution that will help you find the best cost-benefit warranty insurance on the market!
How does the Public Procurement Portal help you at this time?
How the Public Procurement Portal helps you at this time
The Public Procurement Portal has been helping entrepreneurs throughout Brazil sell to the government. We receive around 80 bidding processes per day and have around 120 entrepreneurs winning bids every day!
Additionally, we offer a free bid alert for companies nationwide. Simply sign up for the alert and you should start receiving 3 times a week government sales opportunities in your area.
On the Public Procurement Portal, an average of 4 billion reais are transacted per month in tenders and we are present in more than 1,900 Brazilian municipalities in all regions of the country!
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Conclusion
As we have seen throughout the text, contrary to what many people imagine, a bidding contract is not signed as soon as the winners are announced.
In fact, before that, the winner of the contest must go through a qualification process, in which he will collect the necessary documents to prove that his company operates within the law and is qualified to sell to the government.
After this phase, there is still the appeal phase, in which other bidders who did not win the contest can file an appeal so that the bidding process can be audited.
If the appeal proposed by one of the bidders is approved, then the winner of the bid is changed. In this case, your company would no longer be the winner and another would take its place.
However, even in these cases, there is no reason to despair. It is possible that the new winning company may have problems during the qualification phase or withdraw from the contract.
In these cases, the government has a database with your proposals and can call you again to be the supplier.
Therefore, remember: always pay attention to public administration notices and publications.
It should be noted that, in many cases, the winner of the bid must offer some form of guarantee to the public authorities.
This guarantee can come in the form of a cash deposit, through financing with a bank or through a surety bond.
Of all three options, the best is certainly the surety bond, as, in addition to being more practical for the winner of the bid, it also speeds up the bidding process.
If you have won a bid that requires some form of guarantee and you don't know where to start looking, then take the opportunity to get to know Mapse , a solution from the Public Procurement Portal that will help you find the best cost-benefit guarantee insurance on the market!