Bid documents that require "Mandatory Pre-Bids" or a "Mandatory Walk-Through" immediately send up a red flag that indicates poor or weak specifications.  Many inexperienced buyers or purchasing departments erroneously believe that contractors will become responsible for what is said at these meetings because the “information communicated orally” is somehow incorporated into the contract. This is a very poor assumption, and against all laws of contracting and/or court evidence rules which require written documentation.

  When a buyer tells me they subsequently provide a detailed addendum to include answers to all questions raised at the mandatory meetings, I have to ask, “Then why did the potential bidders have to attend if they will get the information anyway?”

  Other issues are: How can the buyer prove a firm did not attend? Even with sign-up sheets, an attendee may later leave their current employer to become part of the firm that prepares the lowest bid. Even worse is the situation of scheduling a mandatory meeting or walk-through only on just one day which could be a conflicting schedule for a good contractor, forcing him to choose his priority of “another project”. This then makes the buyer responsible for reducing, rather then encouraging competition.

  Resourceful contractors will also wrangle a personal tour at a more convenient time if they think a walk through is really necessary.

  It will be very difficult to support a buyer’s recommendation of rejection just because the contractor did not get their name logged in at the mandatory meeting or walk through.

  And finally, the buyer, the contractor and the courts will be looking to the written word of the contract documents to determine rights and obligations of the parties. Therefore, mandatory pre-bids and mandatory walk-throughs are a very poor method for trying to save poorly written or weak specifications.

  A good purchasing department will avoid any kind of mandatory meeting or site inspection. Suppliers and contractors should question the buyer about the reasons for the “mandatory” and insist on a detailed addendum that clarifies all ambiguities before they submit a price or proposal.

© 1997 by Donald L. Woods, All Rights Reserved