FAQs

What is the Interbiak Electronic Bidding Platform?

The Interbiak Electronic Tendering Platform is the system that allows bids and other documents required to take part in public procurements calls to tender to be submitted electronically, with all legal guarantees regarding security, data confidentiality and bid secrecy.

Thanks to this platform, Interbiak has streamlined the internal management and simplified administrative procedures.

The bidders may submit the bid documents, obtain information on the progress of the procedure and receive notifications electronically, thus avoiding the need to travel.

What do I need to be able to submit an electronic bid?

You need to use an electronic certificate issued by Bizkaia Provincial Council, which could be a certificate for a legal entity or for an individual in the case of an entrepreneur or anybody who is the representative or the person with power of attorney of the bidder.

Open the contracting party profile and go to the tender that you want to tender for, then follow the electronic tender presentation instructions.

What type of electronic certificates can be used?

Any electronic certificates accepted by Interbiak can be used. You can check the necessary technical requirements, including the accepted electronic certificates, by clicking on this link

Do I have to need to obtain a permit to be able to send bids electronically?

No special permit is necessary, you just need to ensure that it is expressly stated in the Specific Administrative Clauses of the contract up for tender that electronically submitted bids are accepted, and that you log in properly to the system with your electronic certificate.

How are the bids submitted electronically?

Bids are presented directly through your browser using an online form. You will find an electronic tender web address for each of the tenders on the contractor profile, through which you can access the tender “Application” form containing all of the information necessary to prepare and send the tender. You do not need to create your bid in one single session. The platform allows bids to be partially completed with their contents encoded until they are ready to be submitted using a password.

Who signs the bids?

The person preparing and sending the bid is often not the signatory representative.

The platform requires one signatory to be selected and that person coincides with the person identified on the electronic signature certificate used to send the bid, but the person with power of attorney usually does not perform this action.

In those cases, the law requires that the electronic bid must be signed by the person(s) with power of attorney to represent the company in calls to bid. There are therefore two possibilities:

• Either the whole bid is signed electronically, with the certificate of the person(s) with power of attorney, which would validate the information entered in the forms of the application.
• Or the bid is signed using a certificate of an authorised person (valid certificate of a representative who is an individual or legal entity), and the electronic documents of the bid signed by the person(s) with power of attorney are attached. Therefore, the documents required to be signed by the person(s) with power of attorney would be the affidavit of compliance of the prerequisites and the bid itself.

In the case of a joint venture (UTE), when submitting the bid, the lead company must register the list of companies in the UTE and the person empowered as the representative who will submit the bid on behalf of the UTE. The documents submitted in that bid must be signed by all the companies in the UTE.

What happens when the signature of a single person with power of attorney is not valid to submit bids, but rather the joint signature of two or more persons with power of attorney is required?

The bid presentation form used for bid submission and registration allows for the inclusion of more than one power of attorney, each of them using their own certificate. Obviously, these individuals must have contracting authority.

Obviously, those persons must be empowered to enter into contracts

Can I provide digitalised copies of the documents?

The required documents must be digitally signed by the person(s) with power of attorney of the company, preferably in PDF format.

In the case of hard copy documents that have to be digitalised, they can be submitted with the representative using their electronic signature to guarantee that they tally with the original The Administration can ask to check the content of the copies and exceptionally ask the interested party to produce the original information or document.

How should the bid be prepared?

First, you must fill out the online electronic bid presentation form. This form will be configured with all of the information you need to submit with the bid, so you should fill in all the related information and provide all documentation that is requested.

The bids must be submitted during the period established in the Contractor's Profile.

When is the bid deemed to be submitted?

In order for the bid to be considered as submitted, the tendering entity or company must produce their bid, finalise it, sign it electronically, and submit it on the electronic tendering platform, which will produce the associated Bizkaia Provincial Council Electronic Registry confirmation.

Closing the bid on the tendering company’s computer does not mean that it has been sent, and if the bid is not sent via the platform, it will not be considered submitted.

Bids can be submitted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; the date and time the bid is submitted will be that shown on the accrediting receipt issued by the Bizkaia Provincial Council Electronic Registry, and will coincide with the moment when the bid’s receipt is finalised.

Bids can be sent via electronic means entirely in one single session, or in two stages: first by transferring the bid’s electronic signature, with it being considered submitted when this is received, and then the bid itself within a maximum period of 24 hours. If this second transfer is not completed within the indicated period, the bid will be considered to be withdrawn.

In cases where tendering companies opt to submit the bid in two stages, because they foresee difficulties transferring the bid due to its size, or because of problems with network connections, for example, their bid’s digital signature must be sent before the bid submission period ends. However, they will have a 24-hour period to complete their bid submission.

The bid’s digital signature (signed by the tendering company) provides a check that its contents have not been altered after it has been submitted by the tendering company.

If the bid’s contents cannot be accessed because the file is damaged, the automatically-produced local copy on the tendering company’s computer can be accessed, checking that the bid’s digital signature (hash) coincides with that possessed by the contracting body.

What do we have to go if we have been invited to bid in a negotiated call to tender without publication?

To access the documentation necessary to prepare your tender, please go to the Bizkaia Provincial Council website’s Online Registry, then click through the “My Paperwork” section to “My Electronic Tenders” and log in through the “Pending” tab. From there, you will be able to proceed as you would with any other kind of electronic tender file.

Who has access to my data?

This bid submission application for the purposes of electronic bidding encrypts all the data that are submitted to protect their confidentiality and integrity. Only the employees specifically authorised by Interbiak have access to the submitted data.

The personal data collected will undergo automated processing and be entered in the relevant Interbiak personal data files. They will only and exclusively used for the purposes described in the relevant file.

How can I get assistance if an incident occurs during the contracting process?

Go to the Support section.