Solicitation Amendments

Once the bid has been prepared, and the required information and supporting bid bond included, a bidder should always be certain that he has acknowledged all of the amendments to the solicitation. The failure to acknowledge an amendment which deals with either price, quantity, quality, or performance time may result in rejection of the bid as non-responsive. If, for example, an amendment to the solicitation has changed technical requirements of the solicitation which will affect the quantity of an item, or the quality of materials, the failure to acknowledge that amendment will leave the government in a position where it cannot tell whether the bidder intends to furnish the item as described in the original solicitation, or in the amendment. Since responsiveness must be determined at the time of bid opening, it is not possible for the bidder to clarify his bid by furnishing an explanation after bid opening and the bid will be rejected as non-responsive. If, on the other hand, the amendment deals with a minor item, such as change of bid room number, the contracting officer may waive the failure to acknowledge the amendment as a minor informality which does not go to price, quantity, quality, or performance time.

(See Failure to Acknowledge Wage Rate Amendment)

Updated: July 24, 2018