The insurance side of a tender goes smoothly when it's treated as a project task in its own right, just like the technical scope: with deadlines, an owner and checkpoints. This checklist runs from receiving the tender documentation to submitting the certificate – print it out, tick it off. One principle runs through it all: for the specific requirement, the tender documentation always prevails.
- Four phases: analysing the tender documentation → sorting out cover → certificate and submission → tasks after winning the tender.
- Timing is the key: issuing a certificate takes lead time.
- After winning the tender, maintenance-period obligations get a line of their own.
Phase 1: analysing the tender documentation (the day you receive it)
- ☐ Collect the insurance-related points from the tender documentation (types of cover, amounts, duration, certificate format, deadline)
- ☐ For an ambiguous requirement: raise a question with the contracting authority through the official channel – in writing
- ☐ Forward the insurance requirement to the broker/the person responsible (the same day!)
- ☐ For a foreign contracting authority: clarify the language requirement (English/German certificate? – article)
Phase 2: sorting out cover
- ☐ Compare existing cover (annual open cover, liability insurance) against the requirement – what's in place, what's missing
- ☐ Decide: certify existing cover ☐ / top it up ☐ / take out a new project policy ☐ (tender article)
- ☐ For missing elements: start a quote request (using the project data sheet)
- ☐ Close off the inception/top-up round before submission, with a time buffer
Phase 3: certificate and submission
- ☐ Submit the certificate request to the insurer – in the format and with the content the tender documentation requires (process)
- ☐ Check the finished certificate: do the names, amounts, duration and project name match the tender documentation
- ☐ Copy filed in the tender dossier + document the submission
Phase 4: after winning the tender
- ☐ Read through the contract's insurance clause in full – does it match the commitment made in the tender (clause article)
- ☐ Actually put the committed cover in place before work starts (inception article)
- ☐ Put maintenance-period obligations in the calendar: expiries, extensions, certificate updates (amendment article)
- ☐ Appoint someone responsible for the project's insurance administration
This list is a general outline – expand it for each tender with the specifics of that tender documentation. If you need help interpreting the tender documentation: the consultation is free – it's worth arranging it as early as possible before the tender deadline: book a time.
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