How Do You Ask a Clarification Question in a Public Tender?

What is a clarification question in a public tender?

A clarification question is a formal question to the buyer about the notice or the procurement documents, sent through the channel the pack names and before the question deadline it sets. It is not a sales call, and it is not a draft of your method. Where Directive 2014/24/EU applies and you asked in good time, Article 53(2) requires the contracting authority to supply additional information on the specifications and supporting documents to all tenderers taking part, no later than six days before the deadline for tenders. In the accelerated procedures in Articles 27(3) and 28(6), that period is four days.

After tenders are in, the buyer may ask you to explain your own submission. Article 56(3) allows a request to submit, supplement, clarify, or complete information or documents that are or appear incomplete or erroneous, or where specific documents are missing, unless national law provides otherwise. Article 18(1) requires equal treatment, non-discrimination, transparency, and proportionality. In an open procedure, that later question is not a chance to negotiate a new price or a new solution.

Write the question so that it still makes sense when every other tenderer can read it.

What does the buyer have to answer, and by when?

The directive does not define in good time. The pack usually does. It names a portal, a message function, or an address, and a last day for questions. Use that route. A note to a named official, or a message after the cut-off, can be late while the submission deadline is still open.

Article 47(3) requires an extension in either of two cases: additional information requested in good time is not supplied at the latest six days before the deadline, or four days in those accelerated procedures, or the authority makes significant changes to the documents. The extension has to be proportionate to the importance of the information or the change. None is required where the request was late, or where the information is insignificant for preparing a responsive tender.

Below the EU thresholds, national rules apply, and they can be shorter or silent. The notice names the regime. Read it before you treat the six-day rule as a right in this pack.

How do you write a question that does not give the bid away?

Article 53(2) sends that additional information to every tenderer taking part, and many portals publish the question with the answer. Article 21 limits disclosure of information you have already forwarded and designated as confidential, including trade secrets and the confidential aspects of tenders. It does not make a pre-deadline question private. A question that describes your method, your supplier, or your price publishes part of the offer.

Rowan Civic Services Ltd, a fictional bidder, is pricing a municipal cleaning contract. The specification says waste is removed daily, and the pricing schedule has one line for disposal. Ask whether daily means every calendar day or every day the building is open, and whether that line includes the containers. Name the page. State both readings. Do not describe a shift pattern, name a waste contractor, or ask whether a lower frequency would still score well. That version tells competitors how Rowan intends to bid.

What do you do when the buyer asks you to clarify the tender?

An answer published before the deadline can change how every tenderer reads the documents. A question after submission is about your tender. The reply explains what you already submitted. In an open procedure it does not add a service, drop a price, or fill a gap the rules treat as a new offer.

The Court of Justice stated the limit in Case C-599/10 (29 March 2012), under Directive 2004/18/EC. A request to clarify an ambiguous tender has to go, in an equivalent way, to tenderers in the same situation, those tenderers have to be treated equally and fairly, and the request must not produce what is in reality a new tender. Article 56(3) of Directive 2014/24/EU keeps equal treatment and transparency as the conditions. National law can narrow the power, as France does in an appel d'offres.

Reply in the form and by the time the message sets, and file the reply with the tender. If it invites a new price or a wider scope, decide that before anyone sends a figure. Some rules treat silence as a ground for exclusion. The message says which rule applies.

When is a change to the offer allowed?

The procedure on the notice decides. In an open procedure the offer stays as submitted, apart from an explanation of what it already says. A competitive procedure with negotiation, and a competitive dialogue, allow tenders to be developed inside limits published in advance. Final offers in a negotiation are not a further round. Read where this procedure says the offer closes.

How do France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States handle this?

France. Article L3 of the Code de la commande publique requires equal treatment, freedom of access, and transparency. In an open or restricted appel d'offres the buyer cannot negotiate. Articles R2161-5 and R2161-11 allow only a request to clarify the content of the offer. On a final offer in a competitive dialogue, Article R2161-29 allows clarifications, improvements, or additions that do not change the essential aspects of that offer, including the needs and requirements in the consultation documents. Those documents usually set the question deadline and where answers are published.

Germany. For supplies and services under the Vergabeverordnung, § 20(3) extends the deadline where additional information requested in good time is missing six days before it, or four days in the urgency cases that paragraph names, or the documents change significantly. The extension must be proportionate, and a late or unimportant point does not require one. After opening, § 15(5) allows only clarification of the tender or of suitability in an open procedure, not negotiations that change tenders or prices. § 16(9) applies that limit to the restricted procedure. § 17 allows initial and later offers to be improved, except final offers and the minimum requirements and award criteria. Works contracts follow VOB/A. Use the section the notice names.

United Kingdom. Procurements in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland started on or after 24 February 2025 follow the Procurement Act 2023. Scotland has its own legislation. Before the tender deadline in an open procedure, section 31 allows a change to the tender notice or associated tender documents. The authority must consider time limits under section 54, and section 31(5) requires the affected documents to be revised and republished or provided again. Cabinet Office guidance gives a supplier's clarification question as one reason for that change. Earlier procurements can still follow the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

United States. A federal solicitation follows the Federal Acquisition Regulation part it names. FAR 15.206 requires an amendment when requirements or terms change before proposals are due. After receipt, FAR 15.306(a) clarifications are limited exchanges used when award without discussions is contemplated. They may address past performance or minor clerical errors, and they do not revise the proposal. FAR 15.306(d) discussions, after the competitive range, allow a revision, and the contracting officer holds them with each offeror in that range. The solicitation says whether award without discussions is intended. Sealed bidding under FAR Part 14 uses amendments before opening. The country guides below show where the notices are published.

What should you check before the question goes out?

For Rowan, the portal is the channel and two clauses still conflict. The question names both and states the two readings. Someone who did not draft it then reads every published answer until submission, including questions other tenderers asked. An answer that chooses every calendar day changes the hours in the price. Keeping the first reading, because Rowan did not ask, is how a compliant draft stops being one.

• Copy the question deadline, the submission deadline, and the channel, with the page.
• Name the clause you are asking about, and the other clause it conflicts with.
• Ask one point. State the readings. Do not attach your method or your price.
• Record the date sent and the portal acknowledgement.
• Read every published answer, including questions you did not ask.
• If an answer or an amendment changes the documents, update the draft and check whether the deadline moved.
• If the buyer later asks about your tender, explain what was submitted unless this procedure allows a change.
• Name the person who may approve a reply that touches price, scope, or a mandatory form.

How does TenderFaro help with this reading?

TenderFaro turns the notice and the procurement documents into structured requirements, including question deadlines, conflicting clauses, and later amendments you upload, and compares them with company evidence. Each finding keeps its source. It does not send questions to the buyer, and it does not decide that a reply is still the same offer. The people who would sign the tender do. The guide to public tenders follows a competition from notice to award, beside the pieces on a response evaluators can score, on bids that get disqualified, and on the glossary.