Hi, has any one of us ever managed at securing a govt tender? am just preparing my docs to secure one and as much as am told i have to oil quite a few hands, is there anything else outside the margins i shd knu about? i REALLY need to hack this one

oh yeah...and i hear it can take up to a year for the gava to pay up...how tru is this?

wow DonBen....quite a mouthful to reason out

am actually looking at bidding for supply of stationery, nothing too complicated

am doing it largely on my own and i THINK i have everything ready but being my first time am not quite sure...

i have wanted to get into the tender business and as much as am still apprehensive about it and still feel like am taking a bit of a risk, am willing to try :)

thanks bro

I need to start tendering but I ma disadvantaged by the fact that my company was registered last month...is there hope for me?

Misdemeanor:

As advised above,
1.get your paperwork in order: VAT Certificate, PIN Certificate, Certificate of Registration/Incorporation, Tax Compliance Certificate, City Council Business Permit.
2.Preliminary Evaluation (vendor evaluation): Here the procuring entity will be checking for the documents in (1) above and also others such as Confidential Business Questionaire, Audited Financial accounts and any other requirements that had been stipulated in the Tender document.
3.Reference Sites: Include a summary of some of your existing clients-a referral letter from one or two of them will aid your cause.
4.Financial Evaluation: As a rule of thumb, the procuring entity will pick the LOWEST EVALUATED Bidder as winner. That is, the bidder quoting the least amount of the ones that passed the preliminary and technical evaluations (applies when bidding to supply technical products and services). The PPOA usually publishes the market price index of common products-eg stationery. Try to quote within their boundaries.
5. Prequalification of suppliers: Strive to be prequalified as a supplier in as many govt bodies as possible. This way, you get invited to participate in many more procurement processes thereby increasing your chances of bagging one.
6.Professionalism: Deliver your goods on time, present your company professionally etc.
7.Networking: Try and be on good terms with procurement officers in your target organizations (customers). Give them a call once in a while-they'll no doubt remember you when evaluating tenders (they are only human).
8.Quotations: In your line of products (stationery), quotations are the most common procurement modes (not tenders). Quotations are only floated to prequalified suppliers. (see 5).

@Wodu, thanks for the above. Seeing as this is my first tender application, how would you advise i go about the reference part. Mine is a reasonably small business and its 11 months old now...would this work to my disadvantage?

@ the Sage,
The directives on preferential treatment are rarely enforced (just like very many other clauses in the PPD Act. To be honest, it is unlikely that you'll given business on the basis of these "preference" clauses.
As I said in the earlier post, your best bet is to get involved in as many procurement processes as possible. As a target,make sure you are prequalified as a supplier in as many public bodies as possible (say at least 10). This is going to cost you some money (each entity may require anything between 2k and 5k for purchase of prequalification documents). My advise is avoid the bigger agencies for now (the KRAs, the KPAs, bigger ministries, etc). Target the smaller parastatals and smaller ministries (ERC, TARDA, KLB, ministry of Northern region, local authorities etc). There's less competition there and the bureaucracy is not that convoluted.
It is hard work and requires frequent follow ups and basically keeping your ear to the ground. And remember, government is the largest consumer everywhere in the world. If you are not doing business with the government, you are missing out on a sizeable chunk of the market.

General word of caution:

Government Business is not glamorous and neither is it for the fainthearted. One has to roll up their sleeves, visit government offices religiously, interact with procurement officers at a very personal level, meet with the same fellows after hours for a drink or two, be personable to them (there's a tendency of people looking down upon government workers) etc.
Govt not be hosted in posh and swanky offices but nothing beats the feeling of hearing these words: "kuja uchukue LPO yako".

@Wodu Wakiri, thank you for the insights. It is interesting that a relationship manager will use the expense account to court a client but will he/she treat the civil servant the same?
I too hope actually know that I will savor those words, "Kuja uchukue tender yako."
Better yet, "Kuja uchukue cheque yako."

At WW...my company just got registered...so wea do I start in this case. All I have is the certificate of incorporation/registration....

mebb u shld send me an invoice after this

Anyone willing to discuss tendering in light of the new proposal to allocate 10% of all govt contracts to youth enterprises?

Rink: www.yagpo.go.ke