Beware the sleeping tiger when tendering for projects – administration risk!

Lawyers are often asked to provide a high level 'red flag/horrors only' review of potential risks under proposed project documentation for tenderers. Quite often the party requesting the review is a new entrant in the Australian market, or a newly formed Australian company venturing into the major project space in its own name for the very first time. These parties will have a proven track record in the technical delivery of such projects and will therefore encounter few issues in preparing and pricing the technical aspects of the proposal. However, if and when these parties decide to submit a tender response without the assistance of a local in-house legal team who would ordinarily advise on the legal aspects of the contract for the purposes of the tender response, there are several considerations that can sometimes be overlooked.