The award of Public Contracts in Cameroon is generally subject to the criteria met by bidders and their offers.
Subject to fulfilling the bid compliance conditions:
(a) quantifiable works, supplies and service contracts shall be awarded to the bidder whose bid fulfils the required technical and financial criteria and is deemed to be the lowest;
(b) contracts for unquantifiable services, including intellectual services, and contracts based on tenders with design competition shall be awarded to the lowest bidder who meets the required technical, financial and/or aesthetic criteria.
Where a contract comprises several types of services, the nature of the said contract shall be determined by that of the service with the highest amount.
The award criteria for contracts for minor works that can be executed by national micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises shall take into account the track record of the bidder for similar works and his location.
The award of any contract shall be materialized by a decision of the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner and notified to the successful bidder within 72 (seventy-two) hours of its signature.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall, from the date of receipt of the final award proposal of the relevant tender’s board, have 5 (five) working days within which to sign the award decision and publish the results, save in case of suspension of the procedure.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall publish the tender results in the Public Contracts Logbook of the public contracts regulatory body, stating the bid amount and the contract execution period.
The successful bidder shall have 15 (fifteen) working days with effect from the date of receipt of notification to register the contract or jobbing order. Beyond this deadline, the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall reserve the right to cancel the award decision after a formal notice issued to the successful bidder remains unheeded. In that case, the bid bond shall be forfeited and the contract awarded to the second-placed bidder.
Unsuccessful bidders shall be requested to withdraw their bids within 15 (fifteen) working days, except for the successful bidder, where applicable. Bids that are not withdrawn within this period of time may be destroyed without any grounds for complaint.
Upon publication of the contract award results, the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall forward a copy of the evaluation report to each bidder who so requests.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner may cancel an invitation to tender without any grounds for complaint. However, where the bids have already been opened, such cancellation shall be subject to the approval of the public contracts regulatory body.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall notify the relevant tenders board chairperson of his contract cancellation decision and copy the public contracts regulatory body and the authority in charge of public contracts.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall publish the decision referred to above through insertion in the Public Contracts Logbook of the public contracts regulatory body.
An invitation to tender may be declared unsuccessful only where:
(a) No bid has been received;
(b) After evaluation, no bid is deemed to have fulfilled the requirements of the tender documents or where no financial bid is compatible with the funding available.
Where the financial bid of the best placed bidder exceeds available funds, the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall award the contract to the second placed bidder whose technical and financial bids are deemed satisfactory.
Where only one bid is deemed technically admissible, but the financial offer exceeds available funds, the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner may initiate negotiations with such a bidder in order to reach a satisfactory agreement.
Where all the financial bids submitted that meet technical requirements exceed available funds, the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner may suspend the procedure to source additional funds or start negotiations with the bidders concerned by order of bid rankings.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall ensure that the time required to source financing or to carry out negotiations does not exceed the bid validity period provided for in the tender documents, or formally obtain its extension, as appropriate.
Negotiations with bidders should not be intended to substantially modify the scope, nature, content and quality of services. At any rate, the financial incidence of modifications to the bid may not exceed 15% (fifteen) percent of the bid.
Any negotiation initiated, irrespective of its outcome, shall be recorded in a report signed by both parties and a copy forwarded to the public contracts regulatory body.
Under no circumstance should negotiations concern unit prices or conducted with more than one bidder at the same time.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall publish the decision declaring an invitation to tender unsuccessful and notify same to the chairperson of the tender’s board concerned and copy the public contracts regulatory body.
In case of division into lots, the provisions of the paragraphs above shall apply to each lot.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner may, with the approval of the Authority in charge of public contracts, and as long as the contract award has not been notified, cancel an award decision without any room for complaint.
The cancellation decision shall, as appropriate, be published in accordance with the provisions of the public contracts code.
A tender’s board may request the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner to disqualify bids deemed abnormally low, provided that the bidder concerned had been requested to produce written justification and such justification having been deemed inadmissible.
Requests for justification, as well as answers provided shall, among others, relate to:
(a) the price breakdown and content, consistency between prices and the construction methods and/or proposed schedule;
(b) product manufacturing methods, service delivery conditions and construction processes;
(c) the bidder’s comparative advantages or exceptionally favourable terms for the execution of works, supply of goods or delivery of services;
(d) the originality of the project or works;
(e) measures relating to working conditions.
Where the justifications provided by the bidder are deemed inadmissible, the public contracts regulatory body shall examine them and submit its findings to the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner within 7 (seven) working days, with effect from the date of submission of the file by the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner.
The Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner shall consider the opinion of the public contracts regulatory body in taking a decision.
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