20.2 Technical evaluation  20.3 In the interests of transparency and equal treatment and to facilitate the examination and  evaluation of tenders, the evaluation committee may ask each tenderer individually for  clarification of its tender including breakdowns of prices, within a reasonable time limit to be  fixed by the evaluation committee. The request for clarification and the response must be in  writing, but no change in the price or substance of the tender may be sought, offered or  permitted except as required to confirm the correction of arithmetical errors discovered  during the evaluation of tenders pursuant to Article 20.4. Any such request for clarification  must not distort competition. Decisions to the effect that a tender is not technically compliant  must be duly justified in the evaluation minutes.  20.4 Financial evaluation  a) Tenders found to be technically compliant will be checked for any arithmetical errors in  computation and summation. Errors will be corrected by the evaluation committee as  follows:  -  where there is a discrepancy between amounts in figures and in words, the amount  in words will be the amount taken into account;  -  except for lump-sum contracts, where there is a discrepancy between a unit price  and the total amount derived from the multiplication of the unit price and the  quantity, the unit price as quoted will be the price taken into account.  b) Amounts corrected in this way will be binding on the tenderer. If the tenderer does not  accept them, its tender will be rejected.  c) Unless specified otherwise, the purpose of the financial evaluation process is to identify  the tenderer offering the lowest price. Where specified in the technical specifications, the  evaluation of tenders may take into account not only the acquisition costs but, to the  extent relevant, costs borne over the life cycle of the supplies (such as for instance  maintenance costs and operating costs), in line with the technical specifications. In such  case, the contracting authority will examine in detail all the information supplied by the  tenderers and will formulate its judgment on the basis of the lowest total cost, including  additional costs.  20.5 Variant solutions  20.6 Award criteria  The sole award criterion will be the price. The contract will be awarded to the lowest  compliant tender.  Variant solutions will not be taken into consideration. The contracting authority will inform all tenderers simultaneously and individually of the  award decision. The tender guarantees of the unsuccessful tenderers will be released once the  contract is signed. After analysing the tenders deemed to comply in administrative terms, the evaluation  committee will rule on the technical admissibility of each tender, classifying it as technically  compliant or non-compliant.  The minimum qualifications required (see selection criteria in the additional information  about the contract notice) are to be evaluated at the start of this stage.  Where contracts include after-sales service and/or training, the technical quality of such  services will also be evaluated by using yes/no criteria as specified in the tender dossier.  21.Notification of award  August 2020 c4b_itt_en.doc  Page 12 of 17 