Pricing a government cleaning tender

Government cleaning specifications are usually detailed: areas in square metres, cleaning frequencies per area, hours of operation, whether work happens during or outside office hours, and a task schedule down to daily, weekly and monthly items.

Convert that into required staff hours before you touch money. Number of cleaners, hours per shift, shifts per week, plus supervision, plus relief cover for leave and absence. A price built from an assumed rate per square metre rather than from the specification will be wrong in one direction or the other, and both are bad.

Labour is the dominant cost and the one most often understated. The contract cleaning sector is covered by sectoral wage regulation, and government tenders expect compliance with the applicable minimum. Confirm the current rate for the relevant area before pricing, because it is revised periodically and an out of date figure undermines the whole build-up.

The gross wage is not the cost of employment. Add the statutory and practical additions or your margin disappears in month two.

Read carefully whether consumables are your responsibility or the client's. Hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels, refuse bags and hygiene bin servicing carry real cost and appear on either side of the line depending on the tender. Assuming wrongly moves your price by a material margin.

Equipment follows the same logic: machines, vacuums, trolleys, signage, and their maintenance and replacement. Add personal protective equipment and branded uniforms, which most government specifications require, and factor replacement rather than a single issue.

There are costs to being a compliant supplier that first-time bidders treat as overhead and then discover are contract-specific: security clearance or vetting for staff working in government buildings, health and safety documentation, insurance including public liability at the level the contract specifies, and sometimes a performance guarantee.

Payment terms matter as much. Public sector invoices are commonly settled around thirty days from a correct invoice, and in practice longer when documentation queries arise. You will be paying wages weekly or monthly while waiting, so the working capital cost is real and should sit in your pricing rather than in your overdraft.

The recurring failure in this sector is bidding below cost to secure a first reference, then discovering the wage bill alone exceeds the contract value. That ends in either delivering badly, which forfeits the reference you bid for, or defaulting, which is worse.

Where a tender uses functionality scoring, price is not the only lever, and a well-evidenced submission on staffing, quality control and supervision can carry a realistic price. Where it is a pure price comparison, be disciplined enough to walk away from work that does not cover its own cost.

Every tier of government cleans buildings. National and provincial public works departments tender term contracts across their portfolios, municipalities do the same for their own facilities, and hospitals, schools, courts and police stations all appear as sites.

State-owned companies add depots, stations and offices. See Public Works tenders and municipal tenders for the biggest sources, and security tenders if you are considering offering both, which many facilities businesses do.