OI Gi 
6. Care should be exercised to see that purchases conform to trade 
usage and do not call for specially made articles when stock 
articles are regularly manufactured and will serve the purpose. 
7. Specifications must call for discounts for prompt payment 
within a specified number of days after receipt of goods or 
after invoice. 
8. Proposals must be sent out to give bidder most remotely 
located ample time to prepare his bid and submit it in time 
_for opening. 
9. From the time the Washington office has been requested to 
solicit bids, all negotiations with bidders, until award is’ 
made, must be through this office. This is necessary in order 
that all bidders will be on a comparative basis. Bids re- 
sulting in prices less than $50 should be recommended for 
award the same as other bids. 
10. The Comptroller General has laid down the principle that in 
the purchase of new equipment involving more or less restric— 
tive features, the specifications must reflect service = re= 
quirements necessitating such features. It is not suffi- 
cient that reasons for rejecting the bids be expressed in the 
recommendation, unless the bidders have been put on notice 
of service requirements in the specifications that these 
features are. required. The failure to carefully observe 
these requirements may make it necessary to readvertise, thus 
causing considerable delay. 
11. In securing bids for supplies over a period in an indefi- 
nite amount suchas coal, fuel, oil, etc., the Comptroller General 
has decided that it is necessary to estimate the quantity in 
all instances, and, in order to secure mutuality of considera— 
tion in the contract, bind the Department to purchase within 
a reasonable percentage variance from the estimated quantity, 
or bind the Department to purchase exclusively from the con— 
tractor so much as is required in the opinion of the ordering 
officer. 
Failure to observe all the foregoing points in connection with 
the invitation of bids in the field may result in the cancellation of 
all bids, and necessitate readvertising with consequent delay. 
