Comparative Statement

A comparative statement is the tabular document prepared by the Tender Evaluation Committee during financial evaluation that places all technically qualified bidders' quoted prices side by side, identifies any arithmetical corrections, and establishes the final ranking from L1 (lowest) upward. It is the core analytical output of the financial evaluation stage and forms a mandatory part of the Tender Evaluation Report submitted to the Tender Accepting Authority.

What is a Comparative Statement in government procurement?

After technical evaluation is complete and the list of qualified bidders is finalised, the TEC opens the financial bids of all qualifying firms at a scheduled event. The comparative statement is then prepared, typically in a spreadsheet or prescribed tabular format.

For a works or goods tender priced on a BOQ, the comparative statement shows each bidder's quoted unit rate for every item and their resulting item-wise amounts, followed by section totals and a grand total. For percentage-rate tenders, it shows each bidder's quoted percentage above or below the Schedule of Rates. For lump-sum or consultancy tenders, it shows the total quoted fee.

The committee reviews each bidder's BOQ for arithmetical errors. Where a bidder's amount column does not match unit rate multiplied by quantity, the unit rate is taken as authoritative and the amount is corrected. The corrected totals are used for ranking. Any correction is noted explicitly in the comparative statement with the original figure shown alongside the corrected figure.

Once all corrections are made, bidders are ranked in ascending order of corrected total bid value. L1 is the lowest, L2 the second lowest, and so on. The comparative statement records this ranking clearly, and the TEC's recommendation to award to L1 is based on this ranking subject to the price being within acceptable bounds relative to the government's estimated cost.

The comparative statement is signed by all TEC members and by any bidder representatives present at the financial bid opening. It becomes part of the permanent procurement file.

Why it matters for bidders

The comparative statement is the definitive record of a tender's financial outcome. Once the award is made, the document enters the public domain and can be accessed through an RTI application. It reveals not just who won and at what price, but how far the winner was ahead of all other qualified bidders, what price the second-best bidder quoted, and whether the L1 price was significantly below or above the government estimate.

This information is the most direct and reliable benchmarking data available for pricing future tenders of the same type. A firm that regularly loses tenders can use comparative statements from past similar tenders to understand how far off its pricing has been and in which direction. A firm that consistently wins but with very thin margins can use the same data to assess whether it has been unnecessarily aggressive.

Bidders who believe an arithmetical correction in the comparative statement was applied incorrectly can raise this as a representation with the TAA before the award is finalised.

Example

A railways zone evaluates financial bids for track maintenance work. Six bidders qualify technically. Their quoted totals from the BOQ are Rs 12.40 crore, Rs 13.10 crore, Rs 11.85 crore, Rs 14.20 crore, Rs 11.85 crore (tie), and Rs 12.95 crore. During the arithmetic check, the TEC finds that one of the Rs 11.85 crore bids has a line-item error where Rs 15,000 per unit was multiplied by 200 units to yield Rs 27 lakh instead of Rs 30 lakh. The corrected total for that bidder becomes Rs 12.15 crore. The comparative statement shows the original figure, the correction, and the corrected total. The unchanged Rs 11.85 crore bidder becomes L1, the corrected bidder is L2 at Rs 12.15 crore, and the ranking continues upward. The comparative statement is signed and appended to the evaluation report.