82 LABOR AND CONTRACTS 



SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS 



These are submitted to the board or commission, pref- 

 erably publicly, at the time and place assigned. If the 

 bids are thus submitted, the clerk of the board reads them 

 aloud. If the bids are by the unit system, some minutes 

 (or perhaps longer) will be required for the engineer to 

 determine the order of the bidders. To do this he mul- 

 tiplies the price bid for each item by the number of units 

 of work as determined by the advertisement and then 

 sums up the products. 



REJECTION OF BIDS 



The party of the first part reserves the right to reject 

 any or all bids. The contract is awarded to the low 

 bidder providing he is able to " qualify," unless his bid is 

 seriously in excess of the amount of the preliminary esti- 

 mate of cost. If, however, the low bidder is not accept- 

 able either financially, personally, or in the matter of 

 experience, the next low bidder may be awarded the 

 contract providing his bid is satisfactory in amount. The 

 rejection of the low bid is apt to give rise to adverse 

 criticism. 



AWARDING THE CONTRACT 



The contract is often awarded on the same day on 

 which the bids are received. Sometimes, however, in 

 order that various matters may be considered, such as the 

 responsibility of the low bidder and the cost of the work, 

 the awarding of the contract is postponed. 



