Contract awarding agencies shall be guided by the six basic principles in the contracting process. These six fundamental principles are:

1 - Advertisement as a Requirement

Equal access to information by all possible participants in the market of public contracts is fundamental to a free and fair competition. This is the major step in ensuring that any public procurement system derives the benefit of effectiveness, efficiency and value-for-money through a transparent and fair process. This explains why the Advertisement requirement is very important for passing the Due Process Compliance rule for openness and provision of level playing field for fair competition through an Open Competitive Tender. 

A procuring entity shall be responsible for advertising directly, all invitations for pre-qualification or invitations to tender for goods, works and services. There are two categories of Advertisement Guidelines;

2 – Pre-qualification as Requirement

In simple terms, upon the collation of the submissions of all respondents to an advertisement for pre-qualification, the relevant MDA shall analyze all the submissions made by the respondents to the Advert. The analyses shall be based on an objective set of technical and financial capacity criteria. The aim is to short-list/select competent respondents to the advert. It is also an opportunity to weed out those who do not qualify to participate in the commercial/financial bid. The criteria shall consist of the following sets of criterion: 

Necessary Conditions (Do not attract any Mark): Evidence of incorporation or business name registration, Registration with Jigawa State Works Registration Board, Audited Accounts of the Business for at least the last financial year and Evidence of Tax Clearance Certificate for three years. 

Scored Conditions totaling 100%: Evidence of financial Capability and Banking support, Experiences and technical qualifications of key personnel, Similar projects executed and evidence of knowledge of the industry, Equipment and technology capacity, (v) Annual turnover, VAT registration and evidence of past VAT remittances and Citizenship(Individual/Corporate) of Jigawa State.

3 – Invitation to Tender / Bid

The tender documents shall follow the format of the standard tender document appropriate to goods, works or service to be procured as may be designed and periodically reviewed by the DPPMB. It should contain sufficient information to enable competition among the bidders to take place on the basis of complete, neutral and objective terms. The Tender document shall be in two parts. Technical and Financial and shall be submitted not more than four weeks after the bid documents were issued.

4 - Opening Of Tender

Opening of bid/tender should immediately follow the closing of bidding/tendering period. Present at the opening of bids/tender documents should be the bidders themselves or their representatives and any other interested people or group including members of civil society, non-Governmental organizations, the press, etc. The Technical Bid is to be opened and conclusively evaluated before the Financial Bid can be opened.

5 - Evaluation of Tender

The Tender submission by the pre-qualified bidders having been made in two parts - technical and financial - shall be evaluated by the Evaluation Team of the Appropriate Procuring Entity. The Procuring Entity shall appoint a Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) at the appropriate level. The committee is to examine, evaluate and prepare a report with recommendations for the award of the contract for submission to the appropriate approving authority. At least three of the members shall have knowledge in the relevant project.

6 - Determination of a Winner

The Best Responsive Bidder with the lowest evaluated tender should be adjudged the Right Winner. Simply put, the Winner in the bid process is that competent bidder (that is, a pre-qualified and technically evaluated bidder) that comes out of the financial competition offering the lowest price for the execution of the contract.