If you are involved with government contracting there is a good chance that you have come across a government agency changing or modifying a current RFP. Whether it’s construction, healthcare, or telecommunications, it is possible that changes to the government contract can be made during the procurement process. These updates and corrections can be for a variety of different reasons and it is important to understand the language that pertains to each.

An Amendment, in simple terms, is a change to an already existing agreement. This includes various types of changes such as the bids due date, a price adjustment, or supplementary information to the original document. If a contract requires numerous changes, agencies will often times create an entirely new agreement.

An Addendum is usually added to an already existing document if something has been omitted during the initial drafting of the document. Whether it was left out by mistake or not, an addendum is added to the original document only if it has been accepted by the involved agency or party. The addendum is essentially additional information or requirements of the involved parties that has not been specified in the original document. Once the addendum is accepted, it becomes a part of the initial agreement.

While an addendum becomes part of the binding contract, amendments are only part of the contract until further negotiation takes place.

Keeping up with all of the updates during the procurement process can be a stressful task. Well don’t worry. In addition to sending you the entire RFP packet, Find RFP also tracks and sends out any additional amendments and addendums made available after the initial release of the documents. This means you will be notified in real-time of any changes or updates made to the RFP. These updates can be extremely important during the bidding process and we strive to make sure you do not miss a beat.