Bids and expressions of interest

Documentation

Information about bids is important for many use cases, including:

Market analysis, to understand competition
Red flag analysis, to monitor corruption risk
Value for money analysis

This extension introduces a top-level bids object to describe individual bids and expressions of interest (also called requests to participate), and summary statistics.

Depending on the procedure, a bid can be an estimate, offer, proposal, quote or quotation. Regulatory regimes vary on the extent to which they allow information about bids to be proactively published, and at what point in the procurement process. In some systems and processes, a list of invited bidders is published in a tender notice, and full details on the bids received are published in an award notice. In other systems, only summary statistics, like the number of bids received, is published.

Schema

The bids.details array contains one or more Bid objects, each representing a unique bid or expression of interest.

Summary statistics

The bids.statistics array contains statistical information about the number of bidders, bids and expressions of interest. Each entry in the array is a Statistic object containing at least:

An identifier
A measure, from the statistic.csv codelist
A value for that measure

The statistic.csv codelist is an open codelist. Publishers can add their own codes for additional statistics to this codelist: for example, for the number of bids from minority or women-owned businesses. Publishers are encouraged to engage with the OCDS community to agree upon the definitions of new codes.

The codelist's Category column indicates whether the statistic applies to bidders, bids or expressions of interest, or whether it is specified or required by a particular regulatory context (e.g. EU).

Guidance

Correct a bid's value

Buyers and procuring entities – and, in some jurisdictions, bidders – can correct a bid's value after the bid is submitted: for example, to correct an arithmetical error or a misplaced decimal mark.

In OCDS, the bid's value is disclosed via the bids.details.value field. If a bid's value is corrected, the value of the bids.details.value field is overwritten. As such, the originally submitted value is only available via the contracting process' change history.

As a publisher, to make both the original and corrected values available to users, publish at least two releases for the contracting process: one release containing the bid's originally submitted value and another containing its corrected value.

Bids submitted for multiple lots

In some cases, potential suppliers can submit bids for multiple lots. Regardless of whether the bids take the form of a single document or multiple documents, OCDS models the "bid" for each lot as a separate object, to improve interoperability.

If a potential supplier submits a bid for multiple lots as a single document, for each lot, add a Bid object to the bids.details array. Add the bid's identifier to the object's identifiers array, and add the lot's identifier to the object's relatedLots array.

If the bid cannot be divided (for example, the data source describes only the total value of the bid, and not the individual value for each lot within the bid), create one Bid object, and add all lots' identifiers to the object's relatedLots.

Expressions of interest

Expressions of interest are also disclosed in the bids.details array. Use the bids.details.submissionType field to indicate whether a submission is a bid or an expression of interest.

Examples

Post-award statistics and bid submissions:

{
  "bids": {
    "statistics": [
      {
        "id": "1",
        "measure": "validBids",
        "value": 1,
        "date": "2016-12-09T01:00:00+01:00",
        "notes": "This statistic covers the total number of unique bids received that were considered valid against relevant criteria."
      },
      {
        "id": "2",
        "measure": "highestValidBidValue",
        "value": 1000,
        "valueGross": 1200,
        "currency": "USD"
      },
      {
        "id": "3",
        "measure": "lowestValidBidValue",
        "value": 1000,
        "valueGross": 1200,
        "currency": "USD"
      }
    ],
    "details": [
      {
        "id": "1",
        "date": "2016-12-09T01:00:00+01:00",
        "status": "valid",
        "identifiers": [
          {
            "id": "bid-123-456",
            "scheme": "internal"
          }
        ],
        "submissionType": "bid",
        "items": [
          {
            "id": "1",
            "description": "Installation and operation of the Shared Public Telecommunications Network",
            "classification": {
              "scheme": "CPV",
              "id": "32412100",
              "description": "Telecommunications network",
              "uri": "http://purl.org/cpv/2008/code-32412100"
            },
            "quantity": 1
          }
        ],
        "value": {
          "amount": 1000,
          "currency": "USD"
        },
        "tenderers": [
          {
            "id": "MEGA",
            "name": "Mega Consortium"
          }
        ],
        "countriesOfOrigin": [
          "MX"
        ],
        "hasRank": true,
        "rank": 1,
        "variant": true
      },
      {
        "id": "2",
        "date": "2016-12-10T01:00:00+01:00",
        "status": "disqualified",
        "submissionType": "bid",
        "value": {
          "amount": 1500,
          "currency": "USD"
        },
        "tenderers": [
          {
            "id": "BETA",
            "name": "Beta Consortium"
          }
        ],
        "hasRank": true,
        "rank": 2
      }
    ]
  },
  "awards": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "title": "Example PPP contract award",
      "description": "Award of Example PPP contract to Mega Consortium",
      "status": "active",
      "date": "2016-12-17T10:00:00-06:00",
      "relatedBids": [
        "1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "contracts": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "awardID": "1",
      "relatedBids": [
        "1"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

A potential supplier submits a bid for two lots as a single document:

{
  "bids": {
    "details": [
      {
        "id": "1",
        "date": "2016-12-09T01:00:00+01:00",
        "identifiers": [
          {
            "id": "ABC-1350",
            "scheme": "internal"
          }
        ],
        "submissionType": "bid",
        "value": {
          "amount": 1000,
          "currency": "USD"
        },
        "tenderers": [
          {
            "id": "MEGA",
            "name": "Mega Consortium"
          }
        ],
        "relatedLots": [
          "LOT-0001"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "2",
        "date": "2016-12-09T01:00:00+01:00",
        "identifiers": [
          {
            "id": "ABC-1350",
            "scheme": "internal"
          }
        ],
        "submissionType": "bid",
        "value": {
          "amount": 500,
          "currency": "USD"
        },
        "tenderers": [
          {
            "id": "MEGA",
            "name": "Mega Consortium"
          }
        ],
        "relatedLots": [
          "LOT-0002"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Issues

Report issues for this extension in the ocds-extensions repository, putting the extension's name in the issue's title.

Changelog

Unreleased

Add fields:
- Bid.identifiers
- Bid.description
- Bid.items
- Bid.countriesOfOrigin
- Bid.hasRank
- Bid.rank
- Bid.relatedLots (moved from the Lots extension)
- Bid.submissionType
- Bid.validityPeriod
- Bid.variant
- BidsStatistic.valueGross
- Award.relatedBids
- Contract.relatedBids
Add submissionType.csv codelist
Add codes to statistic.csv:
- 'microBids'
- 'smallBids'
- 'mediumBids'
- 'disqualifiedBids'
Change category in statistic.csv from 'EU' to 'bids':
- 'electronicBids'
- 'smeBids'
- 'foreignBids'
Deprecate the Award.relatedBid field
Update and clarify Statistic.value field description
Rename the BidStatistic definition to Statistic, and remove bid-specific language from its fields' descriptions
Rename the bidStatistics.csv codelist to statistic.csv
Add guidance:
- Correct a bid's value
- Bids submitted for multiple lots
- Expressions of interest

v1.1.5

Add BidsStatistic.currency field
Add 'lowestValidBidValue' and 'highestValidBidValue' codes to bidStatistics.csv
Remove type information from field descriptions
Review normative and non-normative words

v1.1.4

Fix the title and description of the 'foreignBidsFromEU' code to refer to the European Economic Area (EEA). Previously, its title referred to the European Single Market, but its description listed the members of the EEA.
Add a 'foreignBidsFromNonEU' code to bidStatistics.csv
Remove invalid required property on array field bids.details
Fix the merge behavior of bids.statistics and Bid.tenderers to use identifier merge strategy
Remove Sphinx directives from readme
Update extension.json for Extension Explorer

v1.1.3

Disallow required fields BidsStatistic.id, BidsStatistic.measure, BidsStatistic.value from being null
Disallow bids.statistics from having null in its array of objects
Allow bids.statistics to be null
Add enum to Bid.status
Move BidsStatistic.requirementResponses to requirements extension
Add descriptions to bidStatus.csv
List codelists in extension.json
Add example to documentation
Add tests and tidy code