Who checks drawing revisions on a low Berbera bid?

A low bid in Berbera is often a bid against an old drawing. When a contractor prices a set that has since been revised, the missing cost does not disappear. It comes back as a variation, a stopped pour, or work built from obsolete details. Drawing revisions and underbidding risks in Berbera belong in the tender review, before award.

How does an old drawing turn into a low bid?

A bidder working from a superseded sheet prices less work than the current design requires.

Drawings change during tender. A slab thickens after a Revision B issue, a column moves off a boundary, a pipe route drops. Any bidder still holding the earlier sheet prices the earlier scope. The total looks competitive because it is honest: it covers the drawing in that bidder's hands, not the drawing you will build.

This is not confined to tender. On site, an old sheet stays pinned in the site hut, a foreman sets out from it, and the pour follows. The defect is then built in, and correcting it costs more than pricing it correctly at the start.

Revision control is the mechanism. Each issue needs a number, a date, a reason and a named recipient. The tender set must be the current issue at the deadline. If the bidder cannot state which revision they priced, the comparison of totals is meaningless. Confirm with the design office which revision is current, and record your own answer.

What should you ask a low bidder to produce?

Ask for the revision list, the sheet numbers priced, and the transmittal record that delivered them.

Before comparing prices, request a short package from every bidder: a drawing register listing every sheet and revision they priced, the transmittal or email that delivered that set, and a marked set showing the scope they costed. The client's own consultant should hold the same register, so the two can be put side by side.

Where a bidder's register stops at an earlier revision, the gap is not proof of bad intent. It usually means the later issue never reached them. Send the current set, ask for a re-priced scope, and let the bidder confirm in writing.

For the mechanical, electrical and plumbing routes, ask the designer whether any sheet was re-issued after the tender deadline. If it was, the priced scope may need a stated adjustment. Keep every reply on file: the revision list, not the bid total, is the document that shows what the price covers.

How do you control revisions once work starts?

Keep one controlled register on site, and remove superseded sheets as soon as a new issue arrives.

The site hut should hold a single current set. Superseded sheets get stamped, filed away and kept out of the setting-out area, because a marked-up old sheet on a bench is what gets built. Nominate one person to receive issues and update the register on the day they land.

Before each pour or fix, check the sheet number and revision against the register. General practice is to record the revision on the inspection record, so the as-built set can be traced back to what was actually built. Confirm that recording requirement against the project's specification or engineer.

If a revised detail arrives after work has started, the contract decides who pays. Read what your contract says about the timing of instructions and the valuation of changed work, and put the question to the engineer before the trade proceeds.

What to do next

Before you open the bids, email every bidder the current drawing register and ask each one to return it signed, with the sheet numbers and revision they priced. Compare those returns first, then compare totals. Any bid that prices an older revision gets a corrected scope and a re-priced figure before it reaches the award table.