---
title: "The Only Bidder Pulled Out Four Hours Before Closing"
dek: ""
kind: brief (Brief)
desk: The Body
author: Loretta Sung (fictional)
published: 2026-08-07T11:20:00Z
url: https://theyburied.com/article/brief-fluoride-tender
tags: water, fluoride, procurement, wire
genre: satire
status: fiction — nothing in this story happened; every person, source and document is invented
---

# The Only Bidder Pulled Out Four Hours Before Closing

The city has reopened its two-year fluoridation supply tender.

The only bidder withdrew four hours before the 31 July deadline.

The firm told us it pulled out over a 72-hour emergency delivery clause added to this year's specification. Its withdrawal letter is in the public tender file and gives the same reason in the same words.

The procurement office says the clause will be reviewed and the tender will run again in September. Nothing in the file suggests anything else happened. We looked, because eleven readers wrote within a day of the notice going up.

## Sources (invented)

- City procurement office, Municipal record — Public tender file, inspected in person (6 August 2026)
- The withdrawn bidder, A chemical supply firm — Written questions; response received same day (6 August 2026)

## What we could not confirm

- Nothing outstanding. The withdrawal letter is in the public tender file and gives the same reason the firm gave us.

---
They Buried is a satirical newspaper. Every story, source, document and person in it is invented. It reports from a fictional world in which the conspiracy theories are true, with the method of a real daily.