If you don鈥檛 want the job, just ask for too much money and you won鈥檛 get it. Nobody can touch you. Phone a friend for a cover price, though, and you鈥檙e liable for millions
Something has gone awfully awry in the Office of Fair Trading with this cover-pricing affair. The OFT inquiry discovered industry-wide behaviour when on thousands of occasions, chief estimator A would ask chief estimator B for a cover price. That鈥檚 all. No fiddle, no backhanders, and no favours. Damn it, anyone of you could have told the OFT boys how ordinary that is.
Then the OFT showed us its muscle and imposed millions of pounds of fines on 100 or so of the contractors. That鈥檚 the penalty for chief estimator Tom having a five minute telephone call with chief estimator Jerry. 鈥淗ello Jerry, how are you doing? We鈥檙e too busy to bid for this job 鈥� give us a cover price.鈥� And Jerry does. Tom puts in his bid. He doesn鈥檛 expect to win. And when big boy OFT finds out 鈥� wallop 鈥� massive fine.
Consider this alternative. Tom receives the invitation to tender. There, in the box, is the bumf 鈥� some drawings, a spec, perhaps a bill of quantity. Tom鈥檚 firm is glad to be on the tender list. They fought hard to get on. But if Tom sends that bumf back with a 鈥渘o thanks鈥� he will not be a popular guy. So come what may, Tom will bid. That鈥檚 a definite. In real life, Tom will put in a bid, even a guess, with enough margin to 鈥渇it the work in鈥� 鈥� even if it means bringing in more staff, paying over the odds to finance the adventure, taking a chance on being able to cope. The odds are his price will be too high; he does it to save face. But notice that this time he hasn鈥檛 phoned any Tom, Dick or Gary. Instead, he used his experience to sniff a price, add his grannie鈥檚 age and fill in a piece of bid paper. And all that is legitimate, and just as ordinary as getting a cover price. The OFT can鈥檛 touch Tom for sniffing.
So, let me tell you the rules. Go read the Enterprise A