What the pack contains
The pack gathers the administrative and technical documents the tender requires. It is built from the finalised PRO pack, completed by the administrative pieces belonging to the client.
The documents
| Instructions to tenderers | Sets the rules of the tender: the return date, the award criteria, how bids are to be submitted. Prepared by the client. |
|---|---|
| CCAP, particular administrative conditions | The administrative contract document, drafted by the client or its procurement department. Sets the conditions of performance: programme, liquidated damages, payment terms, price adjustment, required insurances. |
| CCTP, particular technical specifications | The technical contract document, drafted by the design team and its consultants at PRO stage. Describes everything in the package. |
| DPGF, pricing schedule | The formatted costing schedule the contractor completes with its rates. Becomes a contract document on signature. |
| DQE, priced bill | A schedule of unit rates for remeasurement contracts, or for valuing variations. Complementary to the pricing schedule. |
| Drawings | The PRO drawings re-titled for tender or contract, architectural and technical, package by package. Contractual reference documents. |
| Annexed documents | Ground investigation report, asbestos and lead surveys in existing buildings, the fire safety coordinator's brief, the fire safety note. These must be made contractual, or claims arising from site conditions follow. |
The definitive list of documents is itself a document, and it fixes the contractual hierarchy between them. Where two documents contradict each other, the order of precedence set in that list prevails. Drafting it carefully is fundamental.
The packaging strategy
Packaging, the decision to let one contract or several, rests exclusively with the client. It is among the most strategic decisions of the operation, with direct consequences for the final cost and for how demanding the site will be to run. In public procurement, the client takes this decision no later than the start of the detailed design studies (R2432-1).
| Strategy | Advantages | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|
| Separate trades, one contract per package | Better control over which firms are selected. The design team deals with each trade directly. Cost to be compared on a like-for-like scope: on top of the package bids, the client's budget carries coordination and synthesis, OPC, a provision for interfaces and the risk of a package contractor failing. | The interfaces between packages fall to the design team. A site coordinator is needed. More additional work arising from the limits of each package. |
| Single main contractor | Simpler for the client. Interfaces handled by the contractor. No separate coordinator required. | Less control over the subcontractors. Risk of a high main contractor margin. Price that includes coordination and the interfaces between trades, without itemising them. |
| Macro-packages, three to five contracts | A compromise between control and simplicity. Suits medium-sized projects. | Defining the interfaces between macro-packages is delicate. Requires a precise interface specification. |
The choice between separate trades and a single main contractor is not financially neutral. No public statistics compare the cost of the two approaches: the gap depends on the operation, the local market, the number of packages and the client's capacity to coordinate, and is worked out item by item, on a like-for-like scope. It is a trade-off worth documenting and explaining to the client.
Public and private procurement
Whether the client is public or private determines the regulatory frame the tender sits in.
Public contracts
For public clients, local authorities, the State and public bodies, the tender is governed by the Public Procurement Code, which applies to tenders launched since 1 April 2019; the ordinance of 23 July 2015 on public procurement, which it replaced, is repealed (ordinance no. 2018-1074, art. 18). The principal procedures are:
- ℹ Adapted procedure, for contracts below the European thresholds, which are currently 216,000 € excluding VAT for supplies and services of contracting authorities other than the State, and 5,404,000 € excluding VAT for works (EU thresholds applicable since 1 January 2026, under the notice annexed to the Public Procurement Code; for supplies and services, 216,000 euros excluding VAT applies to contracting authorities other than central government authorities, and 140,000 euros to the latter). Simplified rules and shorter periods.
- ℹ Open tender: any candidate may bid. The authority selects on objective criteria defined in advance, price, technical merit, programme.
- ℹ Restricted tender: candidates are pre-selected on a submission. Used for complex or sensitive projects.
- ℹ Competitive dialogue: for complex projects where the client cannot define the technical requirements alone. Dialogue with the candidates precedes the bids.
One point is often overlooked. Private-law bodies can also be contracting authorities within the meaning of the Public Procurement Code, where they were set up specifically to meet needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character, and their activity is financed for the most part by a contracting authority, their management is subject to its supervision, or more than half of the members of their administrative, management or supervisory body are appointed by it (L1211-1, 2°). That provision widens the field of projects concerned considerably.
Private contracts
On a private contract the client is free to choose its contractors and to organise the tender as it wishes. Even without a regulatory obligation, good practice still applies:
- ℹ Assemble a complete pack, specification, pricing schedule and drawings, even on small projects and for private individuals.
- ℹ Invite at least three contractors per package, so that the comparison means something.
- ℹ Never let a contract consist of the contractor's quotation alone: the written and graphic documents must be attached, dated and indexed.
- ℹ Set out the programme and the liquidated damages, however briefly, in the administrative conditions.
ℹ The risk of an incomplete pack on a private contract A contract consisting of the contractor's quotation alone, with no specification and no drawings, leaves the client exposed. Where a dispute arises over what was included, there is no precise contractual document to rely on, and the contractor can legitimately maintain that a given item was never in its price. What no contract document describes is not included in the price, but a gap in the tender file does not automatically become an extra: where the contract is a lump sum for the construction of a building to a plan settled and agreed with the landowner, the contractor only obtains a price increase for changes "authorised in writing, with the price agreed" (Civil Code, art. 1793), and a vague specification opens a discussion of what the price covers. A complete tender pack is the client's first financial protection, and the design team's first line of defence.
Qualification schemes
Selecting contractors can be supported by professional qualification schemes. They are not mandatory save in particular cases, but they are a reliable indicator of a firm's technical competence and financial standing.
| Qualibat | The most complete scheme in French building, covering nearly every trade. The qualification states the field and the level of technical capacity recognised. |
|---|---|
| Qualifelec | Certification of electrical contractors. The reference scheme for power and data packages. |
| RGE, recognised environmental guarantor | Mandatory for energy efficiency work eligible for State support. To be required explicitly in the administrative conditions on thermal refurbishment projects. |
| IP, professional identification | The scheme covering external works contractors, run by the national federation of civil engineering contractors. |
Lump sum and remeasurement contracts
The financial form of the contract bears directly on how variations and additional works are handled during construction.
| Global lump sum contract | The contractor commits to a global price for everything described in the contract. The quantities in the pricing schedule are indicative. Where an item is removed by instruction, an omission is deducted from the global price. The most common form in French building work. |
|---|---|
| Remeasurement contract | The contractor commits to unit rates per element, say 85 €/m² of slab. The final price is calculated by measuring the work actually done. Used where quantities are hard to fix in advance: earthworks, external services, work on existing buildings. |
| Mixed contract | A combination of the two, lump sum for the building and remeasurement for the external works and earthworks. Suited to complex projects carrying site risk. |
Sources: Léonard Hamburger, Maître d'œuvre Bâtiment, 3rd ed., Eyrolles, 2016 · Ordinance no. 2015-899 of 23 July 2015 on public procurement.