Why tenders are rejected, and how to check yours before you submit

Evaluators first check whether a bid is substantially responsive: whether it conforms to the bidding document without a material deviation, reservation or omission. Only then do they score or compare it. A weak answer to a rated criterion loses points; a failed pass/fail requirement ends the bid.

The World Bank's Request for Bids for Works defines the three failures (ITB 28): a deviation departs from a requirement, a reservation sets a limiting condition or withholds full acceptance, and an omission is a failure to submit part or all of the information or documents required. Any of them is material if accepting it would substantially affect the scope, quality or performance of the works, substantially limit the employer's rights or the bidder's obligations, or, if corrected, be unfair to bidders who complied (ITB 30). A material failure gets the bid rejected, and correcting the defect afterwards cannot save it.

Provided a bid is substantially responsive, the employer may waive nonmaterial nonconformities, or ask for missing documentation within a reasonable time, never about price (ITB 29). Failing to answer that request can itself lead to rejection.

For international competitive procurement, the World Bank's Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers require the borrower to use the Bank's standard procurement documents. The table maps each mistake to its clause in the works document.

1. A late bid. Bids must reach the employer at the address, date and time in the bid data sheet, or through the electronic system where the data sheet allows it (ITB 22). Any bid received after the deadline is declared late, rejected and returned unopened (ITB 23.1). The only relief is an extended deadline, which the employer issues by addendum before the original one passes. Allow for courier time, portal registration and upload limits, and get a receipt.

2. Price in the technical envelope. In a two-envelope process the technical part must not include any information about the bid price. Where material financial information related to the price appears in the technical part, the bid is declared non-responsive (ITB 11). A priced schedule bound into the technical volume, or a cover letter quoting the total, can lose the bid.

Sealing and marking are a separate rule (ITB 21): the consequence the World Bank document states is that the employer takes no responsibility if a badly marked bid is misplaced or opened early. Some national rules go further.

3. Bid security. The tender says whether it wants a bid security or a bid-securing declaration, and for a security the amount and currency, in original form (ITB 19). A security must be a demand guarantee: an unconditional guarantee from a bank or a non-bank financial institution such as an insurer or surety, an irrevocable letter of credit, a cashier's or certified cheque, or another form the data sheet names. A bank guarantee uses the bid security form in the bidding document, or a substantially similar format the employer approved before submission, and stays valid for 28 days beyond the original expiry of the bid validity. A joint venture's security is in the joint venture's name, or the names of all its future members. Any bid without a substantially responsive security or declaration is rejected as non-responsive.

4. Bid validity. A bid that is not valid until the date the data sheet specifies, or any extended date set by addendum, is rejected as non-responsive (ITB 18.1). If the employer asks bidders to extend validity, a bidder may refuse without forfeiting its security; a bidder who agrees must extend the security to 28 days beyond the new date, and is neither required nor permitted to modify its bid except as ITB 18.3 provides. The full checks are in the bid security and validity guide.

Where a tender states validity as a number of days from the deadline, this calculator gives the dates the bid and the security must reach. The September 2025 World Bank edition states a date instead, so read that date directly.

5. A required document left out. ITB 11 lists what each part of the bid must contain. The technical part includes the letter of bid, the bid security or declaration, the signatory's written authorisation, the qualification evidence, the technical proposal, the sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment declaration, the local labour method statement and anything the data sheet adds; a joint venture adds its agreement or a letter of intent signed by all members. Leaving any of these out is an omission: rejected if material, otherwise the employer may ask for it.

6. Altered, substituted or blank forms. The letters of bid and the schedules, including the bill of quantities, must be prepared on the forms in the bidding document, completed without any alteration to the text, with no substitutes and with every blank filled in (ITB 12). Retyping a form in your own layout or leaving a field empty invites a finding of deviation or omission.

7. Signatures and authority. The original and every copy must be signed by a person duly authorised to sign for the bidder, with the written authorisation the data sheet specifies attached, and every page with entries or amendments signed or initialled by the signatory (ITB 20.3). A joint venture's bid is signed by its authorised representative under a power of attorney from all members, and any interlineation, erasure or overwriting counts only if the signatory initials it.

8. Evidence that does not prove the criterion. The employer decides eligibility and qualification from the documentary evidence you submit (ITB 17 and 31). A lapsed certificate, licence or registration, accounts for the wrong years, or a reference that does not show the size or type of work asked for proves nothing. Check every criterion against the document you rely on, and check expiry dates against the deadline, not today.

9. Someone else's track record. The qualification assessment does not take into account the qualifications of the bidder's subsidiaries, parent entities, affiliates or subcontractors, other than specialised subcontractors where the bidding document allows them (ITB 31). A group that builds through one company and bids through another can fail on experience it genuinely has.

10. Arithmetic errors. The employer corrects arithmetic by fixed rules (ITB 35.1). Where the unit price and the quantity do not multiply to the total, the unit price prevails, unless the decimal point in the unit price is obviously misplaced. Where subtotals do not add up to the total, the subtotals prevail. Where words and figures differ, the words prevail, unless the words relate to an arithmetic error. The bidder is asked to accept the correction, and refusing it gets the bid rejected (ITB 35). Beyond confirming those corrections, no change to price or substance is permitted in clarifications (ITB 27), so a wrong line total can move your price and you live with the result.

11. Conditions, reservations and ignored addenda. A reservation is a limiting condition or a refusal to accept a requirement in full (ITB 28). A price subject to an exchange rate, or your own payment terms, would be one; if material, the bid is rejected (ITB 30). Addenda become part of the bidding document (ITB 8), and the World Bank letter of bid confirms the bidder has no reservations to it, addenda included, so a bid written to the original documents can deviate from the tender as amended. Alternative bids are considered only when the data sheet allows them (ITB 13).

A bidder found to have a conflict of interest is disqualified (ITB 4). Among the cases listed: controlling, being controlled by or sharing control with another bidder; sharing a legal representative; having worked, or an affiliate having worked, as consultant on the design or specifications, or as the engineer for the contract; or a close business or family relationship with borrower staff involved in the procurement, unless that conflict has been resolved to the Bank's satisfaction.

A firm that bids, alone or as a joint-venture member, may not take part in any other bid, including as a subcontractor, except for permitted alternative bids; doing so disqualifies every bid the firm is in. A firm that is not itself a bidder may subcontract on several bids. A firm sanctioned by the World Bank is ineligible for the period of the sanction. Before you join a joint venture or quote as a subcontractor, check who else you are bidding with.

Bidligence's analysis reads the tender pack for the facts these mistakes turn on: the mandatory documents with notes on format, signature, notarisation and copies; the bid security terms (type, amount or percentage, currency, validity, acceptable issuers and wording); the submission method and address; the prescribed format; and the closing date and bid validity after every amendment, with the document each was read from. The Submission Guard turns the mandatory documents into a checklist, adding items the procurement framework usually asks for as optional, marked to confirm in the instructions to bidders.