Your bid receipt and how to check it

When you submit a bid, you get a receipt. Keep it. It is the only thing
that proves what you sent and when it arrived.

What it says

• which tender, and which version of the terms
• the exact moment your bid was accepted
• your place in the order bids arrived
• a fingerprint of your documents
• whether it was on time

Why it matters

If we ever say your bid was not received, this is what you point at. It is
signed by us, and we cannot change it afterwards. Nor can anybody else:
altering a receipt is refused by the database itself, not just by the
application.

Checking it yourself

You do not have to take our word for it. The receipt can be verified
against our published key, using the standalone verifier, without asking
us anything and without an internet connection to our systems.

That is the point of giving you one. A receipt you have to trust us about
is not evidence.

If your bid was late

You still get a receipt, and it says the bid was late.

We do this on purpose. A late bid cannot be evaluated, but you are still
entitled to proof of exactly when it arrived. Quietly discarding it would
leave you with nothing to check.

What decides "on time"

Our server clock at the moment your submission is accepted. Not your
computer, not your phone, not the time shown in your browser.

The closing time is published in both Tanzanian time and UTC before
bidding opens, and the rule is inclusive: a bid accepted on the exact
second is on time.