SBD 4: the Bidder's Disclosure, clause by clause

How to answer every clause of the revised SBD 4 Bidder's Disclosure: state employment, relationships with the procuring institution, related companies on the CSD, and the declaration.

SBD 4 is where a bidder discloses conflicts of interest. The current version is the revised SBD 4, the Bidder’s Disclosure, issued under National Treasury SCM Instruction Note 3 of 2021/22 and effective from 31 March 2022. It replaced three older forms at once: the old SBD 4 (Declaration of Interest), SBD 8 and SBD 9.

A “yes” on SBD 4 is not a disqualification. An interest that should have been disclosed and was not, is.

Clause 2.1 and the 2.2 table: anyone employed by the state

Clause 2.1 asks whether the bidder, or any of its directors, trustees, shareholders, members or partners, is employed by an organ of state. If yes, the table in 2.2 lists each of them with three things only: full name, identity number, and the name of the organ of state that employs them. The table has eleven rows.

The most common error is answering “yes” and leaving the table empty, or answering “no” while a director is in fact a state employee. Check the answer against the table before you sign.

Clause 2.3: a relationship with someone at the procuring institution

Does the bidder, or anyone connected with it, have a relationship with any person employed by the institution this bid goes to? If yes, give the particulars in 2.3.1. This is the one clause that changes from bid to bid, because the answer depends on which institution you are bidding to.

Clause 2.4 and the 2.4.1 table: related companies

Does the bidder or any of its principals have an interest in any other related enterprise, whether or not it is bidding for this contract? If yes, list every CSD-registered company linked to your directors, by its MAAA supplier number and its status. The table has five rows. The form warns that failing to disclose all CSD-registered active companies linked to all directors leads to disqualification, so check the CSD for every director, not just the ones you remember.

Clause 3: the declaration

The declaration begins “I, the undersigned”, followed by the full name of the person signing, and ends with the name of the bidder, their designation, a signature and a date. Its general declaration includes the independent-bid-determination wording that used to be SBD 9: that the bid was arrived at without consultation, communication or agreement with any competitor.

Sign and date by hand.

The old SBD 4 still turns up

Some departmental bid packs still include the withdrawn SBD 4, the Declaration of Interest. It asks for more per director; including their personal income tax reference number; which the revised form does not. If your pack contains the old form, fill in the old form, with every director’s tax reference to hand.

Free, no sign-up

Fill in SBD 4 and SBD 9 now

Answer the questions, download both forms filled in and flattened, sign by hand. Nothing you type is kept.

Open the free SBD 4 + SBD 9 tool

What TenderFill does not do

It checks your company’s readiness, not your bid. It reads the tender pack you upload and checks your company’s records and documents against it. It does not read or judge the bid you submit, and it may miss a requirement: the tender document is the authority.
It does not guarantee compliance. Every pack requires your review before submission. You must still check signatures, pricing and tender-specific instructions.
Your department’s own forms take precedence. Many bid packs ship their own layout of the SBD forms, and SBD 1 asks for bids on the official forms provided, not retyped. If your bid pack includes its own version of a form, fill in theirs; the Field Answer Sheet tells you what to write where.
It fills the standard municipal forms, not a municipality’s own. For a municipal tender the pack is MBD 1, 4, 6.1, 7.2, 8 and 9 as National Treasury publishes them. Many municipalities issue their own versions, especially of MBD 4; fill in theirs from the Field Answer Sheet. It does not fill MBD 7.1 or 7.3, the goods and works contract forms, or any MBD 3 pricing schedule.
It does not prepare a joint venture’s bid as one. Each party to a joint venture or consortium needs its own pack, and the tender will usually want the signed JV agreement too.

Clause 2.1 and the 2.2 table: anyone employed by the state

The most common error is answering “yes” and leaving the table empty, or answering “no” while a director is in fact a state employee. Check the answer against the table before you sign.

Clause 2.4 and the 2.4.1 table: related companies

Clause 3: the declaration

Sign and date by hand.

The old SBD 4 still turns up

What TenderFill does not do

It checks your company’s readiness, not your bid. It reads the tender pack you upload and checks your company’s records and documents against it. It does not read or judge the bid you submit, and it may miss a requirement: the tender document is the authority.

It does not guarantee compliance. Every pack requires your review before submission. You must still check signatures, pricing and tender-specific instructions.

Your department’s own forms take precedence. Many bid packs ship their own layout of the SBD forms, and SBD 1 asks for bids on the official forms provided, not retyped. If your bid pack includes its own version of a form, fill in theirs; the Field Answer Sheet tells you what to write where.

It fills the standard municipal forms, not a municipality’s own. For a municipal tender the pack is MBD 1, 4, 6.1, 7.2, 8 and 9 as National Treasury publishes them. Many municipalities issue their own versions, especially of MBD 4; fill in theirs from the Field Answer Sheet. It does not fill MBD 7.1 or 7.3, the goods and works contract forms, or any MBD 3 pricing schedule.

It does not prepare a joint venture’s bid as one. Each party to a joint venture or consortium needs its own pack, and the tender will usually want the signed JV agreement too.