Affidavits and Undertakings in Tenders: What You Are Actually Signing

Every tender asks you to sign declarations. They are printed at the back, they are formulaic, and they are the documents in the bid with the longest reach: a wrong declaration can cost you far more than the contract was worth.

The usual set

Non-blacklisting declaration. That the firm is not blacklisted or debarred by any government department, PSU or authority. Sometimes extended to partners, directors and associated concerns.

No near relative employed. That no relative of the bidder, as defined in the notice, is employed in the department, or disclosing where one is.

Acceptance of tender conditions. That you have read the document, including corrigenda, and accept its terms without deviation.

Correctness of information. That everything submitted is true, and that the bid may be rejected and action taken if it is not.

Local content declaration. The percentage of local content and the value addition location, where the Make in India order applies. See purchase preference.

No litigation or arbitration, or disclosure of pending matters.

Statutory compliance, that returns are filed and dues paid.

Why they matter more than they look

Three reasons.

They are the basis for cancellation after award. A contract awarded on a false declaration can be cancelled, with the performance guarantee invoked, long after work has started.

They are the usual route to debarment. Suppression of a blacklisting, or a false statement about experience, is precisely the conduct that leads to debarment orders, which reach beyond the department that issued them.

They are signed by an individual. The authorised signatory signs personally, with a digital signature certificate that identifies them. There is no anonymity in a declaration.

Where firms get into trouble honestly

Most false declarations are not deliberate. They come from:

Not knowing about an associated concern's position. A blacklisting declaration extending to sister concerns requires you to actually check them, not to assume.

Signing a standard set without reading this tender's version. Departments modify these. A clause you have signed twenty times may read differently on the twenty-first.

Declaring local content by estimation. A percentage nobody computed is a percentage nobody can defend. See Make in India purchase preference.

Declaring no pending litigation without checking with whoever handles disputes.

Undertaking to accept conditions without deviation, then submitting a bid with a conditional letter attached. A conditional bid is often rejected on that ground alone.

The conditional-bid trap

Worth its own paragraph. Bidders sometimes attach a covering letter noting exceptions: a payment term they cannot accept, a delivery period they want to vary.

Where the tender required unconditional acceptance, that letter can make the bid conditional, and conditional bids are commonly rejected without evaluation. If a condition is unacceptable, raise it at the pre-bid meeting and get it changed by corrigendum. Do not bid and annotate.

A workable process

1. Read this tender's declarations, not the ones you remember
2. Check anything that requires a fact you do not personally hold, particularly about associated concerns and pending matters
3. Compute anything numeric, particularly local content
4. Have the signatory read them before signing, since they are the one signing
5. Keep a copy of what was declared, against the tender

Step five matters. Where a declaration is later questioned, knowing precisely what you said, on what date, is the whole of your position.

If something changes after submission

Where a fact changes during the bid validity period, for example a debarment order elsewhere, the position is uncomfortable but the answer is to disclose it in writing rather than to hope. A disclosed change is a manageable problem; a discovered concealment is not.

See documents required for a government tender for where declarations sit in the technical cover.