The Guide to Enactment refers to additional rules and techniques that might be needed, for instance to guard the confidentiality of tenders and prevent opening' of the tenders prior to the deadline for submission of tenders .

Tender committee

Article 30. Submission of tenders

H. Electronic opening of tenders

Article 33. Opening of tenders

A request for tenders (RFT) is a formal, structured invitation to suppliers, to bid, to supply products or services.

It was also observed that the question of tender securities might need specific provision, in the light of the experience of certain delegations and observers that tender securities remained paper based documents, and simultaneous submission with electronic tenders might not be possible.

A study of bidding behaviour in situations where bid rigging is suspected might identify patterns suggesting customer allocation or bid rotation.

Thirdly, the authenticity of tenders must be established).

Applying the principle of functional equivalence to the electronic submission of tenders, electronic tenders require the same legal value as tenders submitted in writing, signed and in a sealed envelope.

When reviewing tenders, procuring entities, it was said, should be allowed to seek justification of prices if they suspected abnormally low tenders.

(3) Paragraph 3 considers the contents of initial tenders.

(iii) Electronic submission of tenders, proposals and quotations

(i) Article 33 (1) (opening of tenders at the deadline)

It was evident that all three had been prepared by the same company.

Electronic submission of tenders, proposals and quotations

It expects that the required practice for international bidding will be fully respected in the selection process for the external consultants.

Competitive bidding was not systematically used (Angola and Namibia).

(c) The exact time and date of the receipt of tenders can be established

The bids contained many identical characteristics, including, in one instance, an identical mistake.

(g) Article 30 (3) (extension of the deadline for submitting tenders)

(h) Article 30 (6) (requirement to return late tenders unopened)

The Advisory Committee understands that MONUC does not support the rationale for the increases and is currently going through a rebuttal process a decision on eventual re bidding is yet to be taken.

The Civil Service Commissioner added a segment in tender announcements regarding affirmative action for women.

(l) Article 34 (3) (on tenders that the entity cannot accept) and

Section 2B of the Public Tender Law, added in a 2003 amendment, stipulates that in a government tender, a woman controlled business, shall be preferred, when receiving an equal score to a non woman controlled business.

Such opening may be achieved through an electronic information system, which would automatically release and open the tenders at the date and time provided in the solicitation documents, and automatically transmit the information that would usually be publicly announced at the opening of tenders.

The Civil Service Commission, added a segment in tender announcements regarding affirmative action for women, providing special measures for women and establishing educational programs on the issue of affirmative action for women and for members of tender committees.

In procedures involving an electronic auction, some of these provisions apply to the initial tenders envisaged under paragraph 4 (a) of that draft article (that is, the tenders submitted and evaluated prior to the auction phase).

In particular, the EU welcomes work already under way in identifying cluster, or sectoral, bids.

Proposed additional text for the Guide to Enactment regarding the opening of tenders submitted electronically

11. Calls upon the executive heads of the funds and programmes of the United Nations to improve their procurement practices, as appropriate, using the Procurement Division of the Office of Central Support Services of the Secretariat as a model in such areas as the posting of bids on the Internet and inviting all registered suppliers to bid

Another relevant amendment (from 2002) was section 2B of the Public Tender Law, setting preference to private businesses owned by women in public tenders, as detailed above and in Article 4 below.

The procuring entity may, however, require that tenders include such features.

The Commission also established educational programs on the issue of affirmative action for women for members of tender committees.

(5) Where suppliers or contractors are permitted to follow the opening of the tenders through electronic means of communication used by the procuring entity in accordance with article 33 (4), they shall be deemed to have been permitted to be present at the opening of tenders in accordance with the requirements of article 33 (2).

It was also noted that at least in one jurisdiction no tender securities were used at all in electronic reverse auctions.

(3) ter. Systems for the electronic receipt of tenders must ensure at a minimum that

(g) Authorized persons may have access to the tender only after the deadline

If tenders are to be opened by individuals, they may need to be issued with decryption keys.

4) Monitoring the advancement of equal representation for women, and the implementation of the relevant legislation, including in governmental tenders

Proposed additional text for the Guide to Enactment regarding article 30 of the Model Law, to enable the submission of tenders in electronic form

The electronic opening of tenders may require security related controls additional to those for other electronic procurement.

Electronic opening of tenders (A CN.9 WG.I WP.38 Add.1, paras.

(f) Article 30 (2) (requiring entities to extend the tendering deadline when it makes changes to its requirements)