A tenders committee decided to cancel a tender despite the fact that a large number of bidders duly submitted their bid.
The Court held that cancellation of tender is followed by issuance of a new tender under which bidders are able to improve their offers and it thus opens the door for contracting with a bidder that was not eligible to win the original tender and thereby the principle of equality between bidders is jeopardized. Cancellation of a tender is an unusual and extreme step which should be avoided. A step of cancellation of the tender will take place only upon existence of a defect that cannot be remedied and such sanction is to be exercised narrowly and with caution. In this case the petitioners claims were accepted by the Court and it was determined that the tenders committee was not allowed to cancel the tender because of the advanced stage the tender was in, after the opening of the bids, and because the decision was made improperly and without justification indegenerique.be.