The Law on Government Procurement is a substantive law concerning the methods and procedures of government procurement, participants and government procurement contracts. Article 36 (1) of this law stipulates that "there are less than three suppliers who meet the professional requirements or make substantive responses to the bidding documents" should be abolished. The word "substance" in this sentence has no special explanation. Some people think that the essence is a complete response to the bidding documents, while others think that it is a complete response to the bidding documents. Opinions vary, but in practice, no one can agree. Therefore, understanding the concept of "substantive response" is an obvious "difficult problem" for every organization. Substantive response is the basis of concluding a contract. The process of government procurement is actually a process of concluding a sales contract. The parties conclude a contract by way of offer and acceptance. The offeror put forward the conditions for concluding a contract, and the offeree fully accepted it, indicating that the two sides agreed and the conclusion of the contract was over. An offer is a condition put forward by one party to the other party to conclude a contract, and it is an expression of hope that the other party can fully accept this condition. The party making the offer is called the offeror, and the party accepting the offer is called the offeree or promisor. Offer is a technical term often used in bidding and government procurement, which forms a contradictory unity with the bidder's commitment. Without an offer, a clever woman can't cook without rice and a promise can't exist. Only an offer can be made before the acceptance appears. An offer exists in an acceptance, or an acceptance is included in an offer. This is called a substantive response. If an offer can't be fully reflected in a promise and discounted, it can't be said to be a substantive response, or it can only be said that the response is insufficient. Bidding is essentially a kind of buying and selling behavior, but this kind of buying and selling completely follows the principles of openness, fairness and justice, and is carried out in accordance with the procedures and requirements stipulated by law. Compared with the traditional material procurement, it is very different in management ideas and procurement methods. For the tenderee, all requirements and conditions of procurement are fully reflected in the tender documents, which is the basis for the bid evaluation committee to measure whether the bidder can win the bid, and no additional requirements and conditions are allowed. For bidders, the bidding documents must be prepared in full accordance with the requirements of the bidding documents. If the bidder fails to respond to the requirements and conditions put forward in the tender documents according to the requirements of the tender documents, or the response is incomplete, or some important aspects and key terms are not responded, or the response is significantly different from the requirements of the tender documents, all these may lead to the bidder's bid failure. For example, a tender document determines that the bid is valid for 90 days, but some bidding enterprises do not respond, but in the tender document, it is clear that the bid is valid for 60 days. In this way, even if your bidding documents are excellent and other commitments are good, this item will be eliminated in the compliance check before the bid evaluation begins. The basic elements of substantive response The contents of the bidding documents can be roughly divided into three categories: first, the provisions on the preparation and submission of bidding documents, the purpose of which is to minimize the possibility that qualified suppliers or contractors are at a disadvantage or their bids are rejected because they do not know how to prepare the bidding documents; Second, the evaluation criteria and methods of bidding documents are very important and essential to improve the transparency and fairness of the bidding process; Third, the main terms of the contract, mainly commercial terms, are helpful for bidders to understand the main contents of the contract signed after winning the bid and to clarify the rights and obligations of both parties. Among them, technical requirements, bid quotation requirements and main contract terms are the contents of the bidding documents, which are collectively referred to as substantive requirements. The so-called substantive response of the bidding documents to the requirements of the bidding documents means that the bidding documents should meet all the substantive requirements of the bidding documents without major differences or reservations. If the tender documents do not meet the substantive requirements specified in the tender documents, it can be determined that the tender documents do not meet the requirements of the tender documents, the tenderer can reject the bid, and the bidder is not allowed to modify or cancel the discrepancies or reservations that do not meet the requirements, making it a bid with substantive response. The substantive response of the bidding documents should be considered from the following aspects: 1. Substantive response to the basic conditions: whether the bidder meets the basic conditions for bidding (see Article 22 of the Government Procurement Law), and only suppliers who meet the above conditions can be regarded as suppliers who basically meet the bidding conditions. If the bidding is beyond the business scope, the qualification documents are incomplete, the bidding documents are not signed by the legal representative, or the valid power of attorney and relevant identity certificates of the legal representative do not meet the requirements of the bidding documents, the bidding may be rejected. 2. Substantive response to specific conditions: Article 22 of the Government Procurement Law stipulates that "the purchaser may specify the specific conditions of the supplier according to the special requirements of the procurement project", and the bidding supplier shall meet the specific conditions of the specific project in addition to the basic conditions. On the one hand, the bidder must make it clear whether the tenderer requires that specific qualification, whether you have this specific qualification, and all kinds of qualification certificates provided by the bidder must be the bidder's own, with the same name (if its subsidiaries or subsidiaries use the certificates of the parent company, the parent company will not be recognized). On the other hand, the specific requirements for certain products. If communication products need network access license issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Security products, need to have the Ministry of public security computer information system security special product sales license and China information security product evaluation and certification center national information security certification product model certificate; For software products, bidders may be required to have some specific requirements such as the computer software copyright registration certificate of the National Copyright Administration. In addition, bidders sometimes ask bidders to provide special authorization from the original manufacturer for some important products. Third, it is the substantive response of technical specifications. Every government procurement project has its specific technical specification requirements, and the bidding documents can only meet or exceed (deviate from) the main technical specification requirements, but not be lower than (deviate from) the main technical specification requirements, otherwise its bid will definitely be rejected. These are substantive responses to specific qualifications. 3. Substantive response of contract terms: whether to accept the contract terms proposed by the tenderer. Generally, the tenderee will inform the bidder of the terms of the contract in the tender documents and ask the bidder to accept the offer, so as to avoid wrangling over the terms of the contract after winning the bid. 4. Substantive response of warranty period: the warranty period is a very important indicator, which is also closely related to the tender offer. 5. Substantive response of bid bond: In order to prevent the bidder from withdrawing the bid documents at will within the bid validity period, or violating the response and commitment to the bidding documents, thus affecting the bidding work and causing damage to other bidders, it is clearly stipulated in the bidding documents that the bidder should submit the bid bond. For the bid bond, local enterprises only need to bring a check, and non-local enterprises need to know the account number and bank of the winning bidder, and remit the bid bond to the account in advance, so as to draw up a bill of exchange and a bank guarantee before the bidding deadline (considering the transfer time between different banks) and give it to the tenderer on the spot during or before bidding. 6. Substantive response to the consortium's bid: Unless it is clearly stipulated in the bidding documents of this project that joint bid is not accepted, it can be regarded as the tenderer's acceptance of joint bid. 7. Substantive response to bid quotation: The bid quotation shall be conducted in the format specified in the tender documents, and there shall be no major omissions in the quotation contents, such as the format of the tender letter, whether the required contents such as price, construction period and warranty period are filled in, and whether the public quotation, discount, exchange rate and RMB quotation format in the quotation sheet are provided as required. 8. Substantive response to bid validity period: The bidder must meet the requirements of the tenderer's bid validity period when bidding, and it is binding on both parties within the bid validity period. 9. Substantive response to the deadline for bidding: The tenderee will definitely reject the bidding documents submitted after the deadline for bidding. 10. Substantive response to the sealing of bid documents: bid documents must be sealed as required. 1 1. Substantive response to invalid bid terms: the relevant invalid bid terms in the bidding documents must be responded as required. 12. Time for substantive response delivery (construction period): The completion period of the project subject to tender specified in the tender documents cannot exceed the construction period specified in the tender documents; The response must be made according to the delivery time specified in the tender documents. 13. Other substantive responses: the packaging methods, inspection standards and methods of the goods specified in the tender documents do not meet the requirements of the tender documents; The packaging methods, inspection standards and methods of the goods specified in the tender documents do not meet the requirements of the tender documents; The bidder shall deliver the bid documents to the bidding place before the deadline for submission of bid documents; It is legally allowed for bidding enterprises to supplement, modify or even withdraw the bidding documents before the bidding deadline; And other tender documents with conditions unacceptable to the tenderer are not substantive responses to the tender documents. An effective way to make a substantive response to the requirements of the bidding documents is related to whether each supplier participating in the bidding can win the bid (clinch a deal). As a general supplier, it is only one aspect to do a good job in the bidding documents of a project. To participate in every bidding government procurement project, you must go through careful consideration and scientific arrangement before you can enjoy the fruits of victory. Its method has the following aspects: first, the block method. Bidding documents generally include price, technology, service and so on. As mentioned above, how to ensure that the three pieces can be properly and accurately interpreted without being omitted? The most effective method is to decompose the bidding documents, so that people familiar with the company's price, technology, services and other aspects can understand the relevant chapters of the bidding documents respectively, and draft the bidding documents according to the text format of the bidding documents. This is much more scientific and simple than a person trapped in the closet, and it also plays a collective role, which is a rare and good method. The second is the inquiry method. Government procurement is a sunrise cause, which has not been implemented for a long time in China. It needs bidders to explore, sum up experience and learn lessons. The most feasible way is to ask the government procurement center that formulates the bidding documents and ask for opinions in writing on some concepts, regulations and requirements that you can't understand. At the same time, you can show them your own tender samples to see if you have fully responded. If there is no full response, how to improve, you can ask them to answer positively. The third is the access mode. Government procurement is a mature work while learning. No one is born a teacher, and only by continuous learning can we make continuous progress. In order to understand the bidding documents correctly, we must learn from many aspects and channels, such as internet information inquiry, supplier mutual learning, library information inquiry, government procurement supervision department consultation and so on. The fourth is to abide by the law. Government procurement is in the ascendant in China, and there are many kinds of learning and training courses, and related business knowledge lectures and seminars are also emerging one after another. As a supplier friend who is interested in making a difference in the field of government procurement, he can more or less seize the opportunity to use it as a gas station for learning and improving, which is of great benefit to improving the odds of government procurement activities. (Liu Yuehua)