Government Complete Work Bids Bidder Companies Agencies Sealed

The "federal" (related to the national government) government often hires "private" (not part of the government) companies to complete work. Federal "agencies" (parts of government; departments) must "comply with" (follow) many rules and regulations in giving "contracts" (legal agreements covering what work will be performed, by whom, when, and for how much money) to these companies or individuals.

Agencies can choose to "solicit" (request bids) in two ways: "sealed bidding" or "competitive negotiation." With "sealed bidding," all bidders "submit" (send in) "sealed" (closed; not seen by others) bids and the bid for the least amount of money is chosen to receive the contract. Using sealed bidding, each company or person who bids does not know what the other "competitors" (people trying to win) are bidding and so must give the government a bid that is high enough to complete the work, but low enough to beat the other bidders. With "competitive negotiation," the agencies can consider other factors, such as the company's reputation and timeframe, in addition to price.

Detailed requests for proposals or bids are published with a specific "deadline" (the date and time by which something must be submitted). Once a bidder has been selected for the project, the agency and the bidder must negotiate and "fully execute" (sign by both parties) the legal contract "governing" (overseeing; controlling) the work. The contract usually includes "milestones" (specific parts of the work that must be submitted by certain dates) and "milestone payments," so that, for example, the bidder might receive 20% of the total payment when they complete the first 20% of the work.