Originally Posted by
dervish
Surely this should be something like "lowest bidder who is compliant with a valid requirement."
Ah! Therein lies the rub. If a desirable option is for a cloak of invisibility and only one company out of many can offer that requirement but you
know that your preferred choice would be more expensive than all the other companies that can't offer that cloak of invisibility, then you simply write that in to the SOR as an essential criteria - simple.
And don't think that doesn't happen.
Now in one contract only 3 years ago
that company thought it had the game sewn up. It relaxed its offer in some other areas and lost out to a competitor on grounds of risk. Even though it was a lower tender the contract went to the next bidder.