Bid Adjudication Committee Rules

All competitive Bids that are awarded by Government Entities must be awarded by a Bid Adjudication committee.

According to Treasury Regulation 16A6.2 a Government Entity’s supply chain management system must, inter alia, provide for the adjudication of bids through a bid adjudication committee, the establishment, composition and functioning of bid specification, evaluation and adjudication committees and the selection of bid adjudication members.

According to paragraph 2.4 of the Code of Conduct for Bid Adjudication Committees, the Bid Adjudication Committee must consider the recommendations/reports of the Bid Evaluation Committee and depending on the delegated powers make:

• a final award; or
• a recommendation to the accounting officer / authority to make a final award; or
• Make another recommendation to the accounting officer / authority on how to proceed with the relevant procurement.

Furthermore, the Bid adjudication committee must ensure that (paragraph 2.5):

• all necessary bid documents have been submitted.
• disqualifications are justified and that valid and accountable reasons / motivations were furnished for passing over of bids.
• scoring has been fair, consistent, and correctly calculated and applied; and
• Bidders’ declarations of interest have been taken cognizance of.

If a bid other than the one recommended by the Bid Evaluation Committee is approved by the Bid Adjudication Committee, the accounting officer / authority or a senior official delegated by the accounting officer, must first be notified.  The accounting officer / authority or the delegated official may after consideration of the reasons for the deviation, ratify or reject the decision of the Bid Adjudication Committee. If the decision of the Bid Adjudication Committee to approve a bid other than the one recommended by the Bid Evaluation Committee is ratified, the Auditor- General, the relevant provincial treasury and the National Treasury must be notified of the reasons for deviating from such recommendation.

These are just some of the rules that Bid Adjudication committees must apply when awarding a bid.