Section 55, The Public Procurement Act, 2004

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of subsection (2),no negotiations shall take place between the procuring entity and a supplier or contractor with respect to a bid submitted by the supplier or contractor. (2) If the lowest evaluated responsive bid exceeds the budget for the contract by a substantial margin, the procuring entity shall investigate the causes for the excessive cost and may– (a) consider requesting new bids; or (b) subject to approval by the procurement committee and guidelines issued by Authority, negotiate a contract with the lowest evaluated bidder to try to obtain a satisfactory contract through a reduction in the scope which can be reflected in a reduction of the contract price.