GeBIZ · Tender Lite · Supplier guide
Your first government contract, in plain English.
A walkthrough of the Conditions of Contract for Tender Lite — what each clause really means once your tender is awarded, written for the executive who just joined the team.
Read the full legalese
What's inside
From offer to payment — the parts that actually land on your desk.
The mental model
Who's who, and how an awarded tender becomes a binding contract.
Words you'll hear daily
The handful of defined terms behind every email and clause.
Doing the work right
Care & diligence, delivery, and what happens if it's rejected.
Getting paid
Invoicing, the 30-day rule, GST, and late-payment interest.
Staying on the right side
Licences, the Progressive Wage Mark, and the anti-corruption red line.
When things go wrong
Termination, force majeure, subcontracting, and disputes.
Sector add-ons
Extra accreditation for cleaning, landscaping and security work.
Your first 90 days
A deadline cheat-sheet you can pin above your monitor.
First, the mental model.
Before any clause makes sense, get the relationship straight. The whole contract is written from one point of view: the government is buying, and your company is on the hook to deliver.
The mental model
How a tender becomes a contract.
Invitation to Tender
The Authority publishes what it needs on GeBIZ.
Your Tender Offer
Your company offers to supply the Goods & Services.
Letter of Acceptance
The Authority accepts. A binding contract now exists.
The Contract
Not one document — a stack read together as one.
There's no separate "signing day." The moment the Letter of Acceptance lands, you're bound — by your own Tender Offer, their Requirement Specifications, these Conditions of Contract, and any purchase orders, all at once. Read them as a single set, because if they ever conflict, that whole stack is the contract.
The mental model
It's a template. Read the brackets.
- [ 30 ] days Time to pay you after invoice
- [ 14 ] days Window to fix a breach
- [ 2 ] months Notice to end for a PW Mark lapse
- [ X ] % Default-interest rate on late sums
- [ X ] days Dispute-escalation window
The obligations never change — deliver to spec, invoice cleanly, keep your licences, never give gifts. But the exact deadlines and rates are chosen by the buying agency for each tender. Treat the figures in this guide as typical defaults, and always confirm the real numbers in your awarded contract.
Spot the brackets. In the official PDF, every value in [square brackets] is one the agency sets — those decide your real deadlines, so read your own contract carefully.
Words you'll hear daily
Eight defined terms behind every clause.
The government body purchasing from you — a ministry, agency, or statutory board.
The winning tenderer whose offer was accepted. Every obligation falls on the Contractor.
What your company offered to supply. It becomes part of the binding contract.
The letter that accepts your offer — the contract starts the moment it's issued.
Exactly what you promised, capable of meeting the Requirement Specifications.
The spec your deliverables are measured against. Miss it and they can reject.
Amounts the Authority owes you — minus their rights of deduction and set-off.
Any day except Saturday, Sunday or a Singapore public holiday — how deadlines count.
Doing the work right.
The Authority is relying on your skill and judgment. Deliver to spec, on time — because "not quite right" and "a bit late" both have sharp, costly consequences written into the contract.
Doing the work right
Deliver everything, with care and diligence.
- You must carry out and complete every item of Goods and Services in the contract. Unless stated otherwise, goods must be new and unused.
- You must perform with due care and diligence at all times.
- The Authority relies on your skill, judgment and the accuracy of every statement and piece of advice you give.
This is the contract's baseline: do all of it, and do it properly. "Mostly delivered" isn't delivered. And because they're trusting your expertise, careless advice or a wrong spec is your responsibility — not theirs for believing you.
Heads up: if a colleague over-promises in the Tender Offer, that promise is now a binding obligation. Flag anything you can't deliver before it's submitted.
Doing the work right
If it's rejected or late, the cost lands on you.
- The Authority can reject goods that aren't to spec, defective, or unfit — and services done without reasonable care.
- You must replace immediately at your own expense, and collect rejected goods within 7 days — after that, storage charges; after 1 month, they dispose of them and bill you.
- Rejected work is deemed never delivered, and its risk stays with you the whole time.
- Miss a deadline and they can buy elsewhere — you pay any extra cost (Cl 7).
Quality and timing aren't "best efforts" — they're pass/fail. A rejection doesn't just mean redo it; it resets the clock as if you delivered nothing, and every knock-on cost (storage, disposal, the pricier replacement supplier) is charged back to you.
Build a buffer. Check goods against the spec before you submit them, and treat the delivery date as hard. A rejection plus a missed deadline can stack into real money.
Getting paid.
The good part — but only if you invoice correctly and on time. A few small admin steps decide whether your money arrives smoothly or gets stuck.
Getting paid
How and when the money reaches you.
- Invoice after delivery (or at each milestone, if the contract is milestone-based).
- Send your payment details within the period stated in your contract (commonly 30 days of the Letter of Acceptance) — no details, no payment.
- They only pay for what's expressly in the contract — extras need written agreement first.
Getting paid is on you to set up. Lodge your bank/PayNow details early, invoice cleanly through the right channel, and never assume a payment means your work was approved — Clause 5.3 says they can still flag defects later.
Getting paid
Your taxes are yours — and lateness costs.
- You bear all your own taxes — corporate, personal income, customs, levies and duties.
- If the tax authorities require it, the Authority may deduct or withhold tax from your payment and forward only the balance — with no obligation to "gross it up."
- If you owe money under the contract and pay late, default interest accrues daily until you settle (Cl 18).
Price your tender net of your own tax burden — the Authority won't top you up for it. And the late-payment clock runs both ways: if your company owes them, interest stacks up daily.
Staying on the right side.
Compliance isn't a one-time checkbox — it runs for the whole contract. And one line in particular has zero tolerance: gifts and inducements.
Staying on the right side
Keep every licence — and your wage mark — valid.
- At your own cost, obtain and maintain all licences, permits and approvals needed to perform the contract — and comply with all applicable laws, indemnifying the Authority if you don't.
- If you employ local workers on progressive wages, maintain a valid Progressive Wage (PW) Mark and notify changes within the stated period (commonly 1 month).
- Fail to keep the PW Mark and they can terminate with the stated notice (commonly 2 months).
"Valid throughout the contract" means renewals are your job — a lapsed licence mid-contract is a breach, not an oversight. Diarise every expiry date the day the contract starts.
Set reminders early. Accreditations often take weeks to renew. Track renewal windows so nothing expires while the contract is still running.
The red line
No gifts. No inducements. None.
- Offering or giving any gift or consideration as an inducement or reward connected to the contract lets the Authority terminate immediately and recover its losses.
- It covers you, your employees, and anyone acting for you — even without your knowledge.
- Backed by the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Penal Code — this is criminal law, not just contract terms.
This is the one rule with no grey zone and no second chance. A festive hamper to "thank" an officer, a subcontractor slipping someone a favour — either can end the contract instantly and trigger an investigation. When unsure, the answer is always no.
Zero tolerance. If anyone hints at a gift or favour — in either direction — stop and tell your manager. Document it. Do not handle it quietly.
When things go wrong.
Know the exits before you need them: what can end the contract, what excuses a failure, who you can lean on, and how disputes are meant to be settled.
When things go wrong
What can end the contract — and the bill that follows.
- They can terminate for default — you get the stated cure period (commonly 14 days) to fix a fixable breach — or for material breach, reputational damage, or breaking the compliance/subcontracting rules.
- Insolvency or bankruptcy = immediate termination, with no compensation to you.
- On termination you must refund payments (less accepted work), hand back deliverables and their property, and cover the extra cost of the replacement contractor.
Termination isn't just "contract over" — it can mean paying back money and footing the cost of whoever finishes the job. The upside: most breaches come with a cure period, so a fixable slip handled fast usually doesn't end things.
Act on notices immediately. A written default notice starts a 14-day clock. Don't let it sit in an inbox — that window is your chance to save the contract.
When things go wrong
What's excused — and who you're answerable for.
- Force majeure: neither side is liable for failures beyond reasonable control — acts of God, pandemics, war, fire — but you must resume as soon as you can. Over 3 months and they may terminate.
- A subcontractor's or supplier's failure is NOT force majeure — that risk stays yours.
- You need written consent to subcontract or assign, and you're fully liable for your subcontractors' acts and omissions.
Force majeure is narrow — it's for genuine disasters, not a vendor letting you down. Anyone you bring in is your responsibility, so get sign-off before subcontracting and choose partners you'd vouch for.
Vet your supply chain. If your subcontractor misses, the Authority still holds you to the deadline. Their problem becomes your breach.
Sector add-ons
Some sectors carry extra accreditation.
Maintain at least the “Clean Mark Silver” Award for the whole contract — and ensure your cleaning subcontractors hold it too.
Keep your Landscape Company Register status valid, and make sure landscaping subcontractors comply.
Hold a valid security agency's licence and a clean record under the key employment & safety laws.
On day one, check which compendium clause applies to your contract — these stack on top of everything else. Let the accreditation lapse, or fail to replace a non-compliant subcontractor in time, and the Authority can terminate the contract.
Your first 90 days
The deadline cheat-sheet.
Timings shown are common defaults — confirm the exact figures in your awarded contract.
Read the full contract stack — it's already live.
The Letter of Acceptance binds you. Map your obligations across the spec, your offer and the Conditions. Cl 1.1(b)
Lodge your payment details.
Send bank / PayNow / GIRO details so the Authority can actually pay you. No details, no payment. Cl 5.2
Confirm every licence & accreditation is valid.
Check what's required, diarise each renewal date. Includes any sector add-on. Cl 8 · Compendium A
Sort your Progressive Wage Mark.
Maintain it, and notify the Authority of any status change within a month. Cl 9
Check against spec, then invoice via InvoiceNow.
Rejected = deemed never delivered. Collect any rejected goods within 7 days. Payment follows in 30. Cl 4 · 5
No gifts. Keep records. Escalate early.
Hold the anti-corruption line, document decisions, and raise disputes to a senior officer before they grow. Cl 10 · 28
Take it to your desk
Five do's, five don'ts.
Do
- Read the whole contract stack as one document.
- Diarise every deadline, expiry and renewal.
- Check deliverables against the spec before submitting.
- Invoice correctly, through the right channel, on time.
- Put problems in writing and escalate them early.
Don't
- Assume a payment means your work was accepted.
- Let a licence or accreditation quietly lapse.
- Subcontract or assign without written consent.
- Offer or accept any gift, favour or inducement.
- Sit on a default or rejection notice.
When in doubt, ask — that's the job done well.
Raise it with your manager or the officer named in the contract. Disputes go to a senior officer first, then mediation at the Singapore Mediation Centre (Cl 28–29). Asking early is always cheaper than fixing late.