What is a contractual modification?

Well, look, a contractual modification is basically giving hand to the original contract after everyone has signed it and agreed. It can be anything: changes in conditions, in what you have to do, in the deadlines, in the pasta (the price), or in some detail that did not pass by your head before. In the end, these modifications are the daily bread in the management of public contracts, because to see, when does everything perfect to the first? Spoiler: Never. Sometimes the client changes his mind, or suddenly there is a new law, or there was simply an error or something confusing in the entrance contract. It may also happen that, in full execution, some unforeseen event and way leave, it is time to adjust.

Now, in the roll of public tenders, eye, because here you cannot change things lightly. If you get ready, you can ling it brown and end up breaking the hiring rules. In many countries, if you put a large change to a public contract, it is still the tender to re -zero, with all the paraphernalia that implies. Because? Because if you change the contract a lot, other suppliers could have been interested or would have offered something better. It would be a bit to play dirty to leave others out of the party.

In the European Union, for example, the 2014/24/24/2/that makes it clear: if the change is so fat that it could have attracted other bidders or the result of the tender would have changed, then you have to start over. Nothing to cheat under the table.

So, if you are a company that gets into these public contracts, you have to have very clear what you are signing before putting the autograph. And if you have to change something, do it with your head and following the law. Sometimes there is no other than calling a lawyer, especially if the contract is a monster of those of millions and a thousand pages.

A practical advice: put in the contract Clausulitas to manage these changes. Things like price reviews or settings, so that if you have to adapt to what comes, do not catch you offside. And, of course, talk to your public client, do not wait for the bomb to exploit. Keep fluid communication and so the changes do not catch you by surprise.

To summarize it without so much return: modifying a contract can be inevitable, but in the world of public tenders you have to do it carefully and without skipping the rules, or you play it. Understand what you sign, advise yourself when necessary, put mechanisms for changes and do not lose sight of communication with the client. Easy, right? Well, not easy, but at least you know where the shots are going.