Chapter 16: Who would win?
Su Can had written the bidding documents himself, naturally using his eldest uncle's computer and a 1.4 MB floppy disk. In his later life, he had prepared countless business reports. Asking him to produce something original and impressive right now would have been somewhat limiting, but he had seen plenty of classic templates and knew a few techniques for making the key points stand out. That was why Hong Xiaotian immediately felt these documents were different from the usual ones.
Every stage of the tender meeting proceeded in an orderly fashion. The results were announced for the government's various procurement categories, including electrical appliances, cars, daily necessities, and financial supplies. Some in the audience rejoiced, some were disappointed, and some left dejectedly. Finally, it was time for questions on office supplies. One of the expert panel's judges looked over a bid that had passed the eligibility assessment, then raised his head and looked toward Su Can's family.
"The bidder from the city's Xiahai Cultural Supplies: according to clause 11.2 on page eight of your main bidding document, you are requesting an annual municipal budget allocation of two hundred thousand yuan. Your bid exceeds the average budget quotation. Do you have anything to add on this point?"
A stir ran through the people around them. Although this was called a tender, beyond the most basic eligibility checks, it was essentially a competition in pricing. While all the bidding companies were concentrating on squeezing down their pricing calculations, someone had dared to submit a high bid. That was rather unusual.
Su Licheng smiled at those around him who had already taken an interest in him. "As Mayor Hong mentioned in his earlier speech, fiscal provisioning under a planned economy has considerable drawbacks. Let me venture to say