Retain bids by outcome, obligation and hold
Working drafts, submitted offers, clarification responses, award records and unsuccessful bids may have different retention duties. Apply contract, law, organizational schedule, dispute and hold requirements to each copy class.
After award notice, records staff inventory the submitted package, evaluation correspondence, local drafts and backups. They transfer the official record, check claims and holds, then approve retention or verified disposal per class.
Run the control in five steps
- 01Inventory drafts, approvals, submissions, clarifications and backups.
- 02Identify contractual, statutory and organizational authorities.
- 03Check protests, disputes, investigations and legal holds.
- 04Assign keep, delete or sanitize by copy class.
- 05Record system-of-record transfer and verified disposition.
Preserve the decision trail
Keep opportunity, outcome, copy class, location, authority, hold check, disposition, date, verification and approver.
Stop and investigate when
- Award notice automatically triggers deletion.
- A vault delete action is called guaranteed sanitization.
- Partner downloads and backups are absent from the inventory.
State what this does not prove
Does not replace provider permissions, guaranteed backup, password recovery or enterprise identity management. Solicitation rules, portal identity, contractual safeguards and authorized review remain separate.
Procurement bid security questions
Is there one universal bid-retention period?
No. Apply the relevant jurisdiction, contract, policy and hold requirements.
Is ordinary deletion secure erasure?
Not necessarily; use an approved method suited to the media and risk.
Sources for this decision
- Acquisition.gov FAR 3.104: bid and source-selection information
- NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3: Protecting CUI
Links support specific boundaries and do not imply endorsement.