Answering supplier questions
Suppliers and providers can ask questions to help them prepare their proposal. When your answer gives extra information to the RFx, make it available to all respondents so no one gets an unfair advantage.
Suppliers and providers can ask questions about any notice of procurement.
You should close questions about a week before the RFx closes, so you have time to answer them and suppliers have time to reflect those answers in their responses.
Respond to questions:
- within two working days if possible
- comprehensively - your aim is to help the supplier to submit the best offer they can.
If you can't reply promptly, extend the deadline for supplier responses, as required by Rule 19.
Rule 19: Responding to queries
If your answer provides more information than your existing documents and could be of value to other suppliers, make the answers available to everyone. This means no one gets an unfair advantage.
Publish questions and answers as supplementary information on GETS.
If you're not using a tender management system like GETS, you can document questions in a spreadsheet and share that with respondents.
Commercially sensitive questions
If a supplier's query is about information that's commercially sensitive, it's up to them to make this clear.
Any commercially sensitive information must be protected and not released to any other supplier.
You might decide not to publish that question and answer, or to remove the part that's commercially sensitive before you publish it.
Supplier briefings
You can also hold a briefing session for suppliers and providers at the start of the RFx process, where they can ask you questions. You can brief suppliers individually or as a group.