Section 53, The Public Procurement Act, 2004

(1) Following the opening of bids, the procuring entityshall first examine the bids in order to determine whether the bids are complete, signed, whether required documents to establish legal validity and required bid security have been furnished and whether bids are substantially responsive to the technical specification and contract conditions set forth in the bidding documents. (2) Bids which are not complete, not signed, not accompanied by a bid security in the prescribed form, if one is required, or not accompanied by essential supporting documents such as business registration certificates, business licences and tax receipts, or are substantially non-responsive to the technical specifications or contract conditions or other critical requirements in the bidding documents, shall be rejected and excluded from further evaluation and comparison. (3) If a prequalification procedure was applied, a bid received from any entity other than the prequalified bidders shall be rejected and excluded. (4) Bids not excluded from consideration under subsections (2) and (3), shall be evaluated in accordance with the criteria and methodology stated in the bidding documents. (5) The procuring entity may seek clarification from any bidder to facilitate evaluation but shall neither ask nor permit any bidder to change the price or any other aspect of the bid and if a bidder amends its bid in any manner, such a bid shall be rejected and its bid security forfeited. (6) If there is an arithmetical error, such an error shall be rectified and the bidder notified but if the bidder refuses to accept such correction, its bid shall be rejected and the bid security forfeited. (7) If there is a discrepancy between figures and words, the amount in words shall prevail unless the discrepancy is due to misplacement of decimal point, in which case the mistake shall be rectified and the bidder notified. (8) In carrying out the evaluation, if there are minor deviations in any bid which did not merit rejection of bid at the earlier stage, such minor variation shall be costed, if possible, and the evaluated cost of such a bid shall then be compared to those of other bids to determine the lowest evaluated bid. (9) If the process included a prequalification, the qualifications of the lowest evaluated bidder shall be verified again to take account of any change since the original prequalification. (10) If there was no prequalification, the qualifications of the lowest evaluated substantially responsive bidder shall be checked against the criteria specified in the bidding documents; if that bid fails, the same check shall be applied to the next ranked bid. Bid opening. Examination, evaluation and comparison of bids. 48 49 (11) The procuring entity shall prepare an evaluation report detailing the examination and evaluation of bids and identifying the recommendation for award of contract in accordance with the evaluation criteria specified in the bidding document. 54 . Information relating to the examination, clarification, evaluation and comparison of bids shall not be disclosed to suppliers or contractors or to any other person not involved officially in the examination, evaluation or comparison of bids or in the decision on which bid should be accepted, except as provided in subsections (3) and (4) of section 32 on the record of procurement proceedings.