Refunds and cancellations

What is paid on the portal

All payments are made online through the payment gateway of the Council's bank. No goods are shipped: every payment is a fee or a deposit in an e-auction, and a receipt is issued on the portal for each.

• The bid document fee, for the bid document of a notice.
• The participation fee and the earnest money (EMD), per lot bid for.
• The bid security and the one month's advance after the e-auction, by the preferred bidder.

Bidding Document: Clause 8.1 to 8.3, 10.1, Schedule II item 11

Bid document fee

Not refunded, except when the e-auction is annulled because no preferred bidder was declared within 250 days of the bid due date, in which case the Council refunds it.

Bidding Document: Clause 1.10, 13.11

Participation fee

Not refunded.

Bidding Document: Clause 8.3

Earnest money (EMD)

• Returned without interest, as promptly as possible, to a bidder that is not successful: one that did not qualify, whose offer was not the highest, or whose lot was annulled.
• Returned to the successful bidder when its first quarterly payment is received.
• Forfeited where the Bidding Document says so: an offer below the reserve price, a bid withdrawn during its validity, a prohibited practice, a preferred bidder that does not deposit the bid security or complete the settlement, an e-auction annulled because no qualified bidder bid, or a bid rejected for misrepresentation or a violation.

Bidding Document: Clause 13.7.4, 14.3 to 14.6

Bid security

Held through the settlement period and adjusted against the security under the agreement. Where the letter of intent is revoked for default, the initial bid security stands forfeited and the balance remains recoverable.

Bidding Document: Clause 10.1(2), 10.1(3)

How a refund reaches you

• A refund decided by Accounts is sent through the payment gateway to the account or instrument you paid from. It is made within 7 working days of the decision and reaches you in the time your bank takes, usually 5 to 7 working days more.
• A payment that is too old for the gateway to reverse (about six months) is refunded by bank transfer to an account in the bidder's name, which Accounts asks you for.
• A payment debited twice for the same fee is refunded as a duplicate once the gateway confirms it, without a request.
• Gateway or bank charges on a payment are not refunded. No interest is paid on any refund.

Bidding Document: Clause 10.1(3)(vii), 14.3

Cancellations

A payment made on the portal cannot be cancelled by the bidder. A sealed offer can be replaced until the bid due date; a bid cannot be withdrawn during its validity without forfeiting the earnest money. When the Department cancels a notice or annuls a lot, the earnest money of every bidder of that lot is returned as above.

Bidding Document: Clause 13.10, 14.6(c)