Informational Addenda

In soliciting bids for public works projects or requesting proposals or qualifications for consultant contracts, public agencies frequently issue addenda to modify the terms of the original solicitation, either because of an error, substitution of products approved, a change of the submittal deadline, added or deleted work, or in order to clarify the requirements so they are not misinterpreted, often in response to questions raised by contractors or consultants.

Generally, addenda change specific requirements of the solicitation document. However, there are situations where a public agency may want to issue an addendum that does not actually modify requirements but which contains information important for contractors and consultants.

For example, if a pre-bid or pre-submittal meeting is held, the public agency should document the questions asked and provide the official answers through some mechanism to all firms who have picked up the solicitation documents, and an addendum is the most logical vehicle to use for communicating this information. Sometimes, the questions raised at a pre-bid or pre-submittal meeting will result in the public agency actually changing a requirement of the solicitation documents, while at other times the answers provided to questions asked will be just clarifications. In addition, bidders and proposers frequently want to know the names of others who attended a pre-bid or pre-submittal meeting, and an addendum is a good way to communicate this information.

However, because the introductory language to most addenda states that the addendum modifies provisions of the solicitation document, there is a need for language that addresses what I would call "informational addenda." If the list of attendees and Q&A is being issued in one addendum, the following is language that could be used to describe the purpose of the addendum:

"This informational addendum is issued for the Invitation to Bid for the ___________________ project in order to document responses to questions raised at the pre-bid meeting held on _______________________, and to share the list of attendees at the meeting. In the event of a conflict between information in this addendum and the bidding documents, the terms of the bidding documents shall apply."

The language above would need to be adapted for RFPs and RFQs.