A bidder encountered technical difficulties in submitting its bid for a tender, but the Tenders Committee refused to accept its bid, even though it was received only 4 minutes late.
The Court rejected the petition and stated that the decision to disqualify the bid was duly made. Under Israeli law, the Tenders Committee will not discuss bids that were not found in the tender box by the deadline for submission. In this case, the tender instructions stated that the bid must be submitted to the digital tender box by 14:00. The tender publisher was aware that it was a digital submission and included instructions in the tender warning participants of technical faults that may arise. The bidder started the digital submission process only an hour before the deadline and only then encountered various technical difficulties. Finally, 5 minutes before the deadline, it sent the bid by email, but the email did not reach its destination due to a clerical error in the email address, on the bidder part, and when the bid was sent again, it finally reached its destination 4 minutes late. Submitting a bid on time is a clear material matter and not a technical one. A cautioned bidder is expected to try to submit his bid ahead of time and not at the last minute. A bidder who delays in submitting its offer must know that it is taking a risk if, due to one fault or another, its bid is not accepted on time, it will not be accepted. Therefore, in this case there was no flaw in the tender committee's decision justifying the Court's intervention and the bid is to be disqualified.