NCA Non-Collusion Affidavit Form: Completing, Notarizing, Submitting

A non-collusion affidavit is a sworn statement you submit with a government bid certifying that you set your prices independently, kept them confidential until bid opening, and did not try to steer the competition. Federal regulations require it on highway construction contracts funded under Title 23, and most state and local agencies demand one on any competitively bid project.¹ Omit it, botch a field, or sign it in the wrong place and the agency can declare your entire bid nonresponsive before anyone looks at your price.

What You Are Swearing To

The form asks you to certify three things. You arrived at your bid prices independently, without consulting or agreeing with another bidder about pricing, about whether to submit, or about how to calculate your offer. You have not disclosed those prices to any competitor before bids are opened. And you have not tried to persuade another firm to submit or hold back a bid in order to limit competition.²

Federal procurement uses a companion document, the Certificate of Independent Price Determination at FAR 52.203-2, which covers the same ground for negotiated contracts and sealed bids under the Federal Acquisition Regulation. For federal-aid highway projects, 23 CFR 635.112(f) requires every state Department of Transportation to put the noncollusion language in its bidding documents.³ State and local agencies add their own wrinkles, but the three certifications are the same everywhere.

What to Pull Together Before You Start

Have these in front of you before you touch the form. Clerical mismatches between the affidavit and the rest of your bid are a common reason bids get thrown out.

Your full legal entity name as it appears on your corporate filings or business registration, not a trade name or DBA unless the solicitation allows it.
Your registered business address, matching the address on your bid proposal.
The bid or project number assigned by the contracting agency, copied character for character from the bid advertisement.
The name and title of the person who has legal authority to bind your firm. For a corporation, that is typically the president; if someone else signs, many agencies require a certified copy of the board resolution or bylaw authorizing that person.

Every field on the affidavit must match what appears on your primary bid proposal. A name spelled differently, or a transposed digit in the project number, gives the contracting officer grounds to call the bid nonresponsive.

Filling In the Form

Use the version the contracting agency provides. Agencies often include jurisdiction-specific language that a generic template from the internet will not have.

Fill in your entity name, address, and the solicitation number in the header. Most forms then set out the three certifications as preprinted statements, followed by a signature block. Read each statement. If any part does not fit your situation, for instance you previously disclosed pricing to a subcontractor who later decided to bid as a prime, attach a signed explanation rather than quietly checking the box. Certifying something you know is not fully accurate is the kind of false statement that invites prosecution.²

Print the signer’s name and title in the designated spots. Leave the signature line and date blank until you are in front of the notary. Signing beforehand can invalidate the notarization.

Who Has Authority to Sign

The signer must be able to legally bind your organization. For a sole proprietorship, that is the owner. For a partnership or joint venture, a partner signs. For a corporation, the president signs unless a board resolution has delegated the authority to another officer, in which case you attach a certified copy of the resolution.

Under FAR 52.203-2, the signer is either the person who actually determined the bid prices or an agent authorized in writing to certify on their behalf.² If an agent is signing, the form should list the names and titles of the principals who authorized the certification. Agencies will not chase you for a corrected signature. They will set the bid aside.

Notarizing and Executing the Affidavit

Under 23 CFR 635.112(f), the affidavit must be either sworn before someone authorized to administer oaths under state law or executed as an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States.³ Most agencies expect notarization, and using a notary removes any question about whether the form meets the requirement.

Bring the completed but unsigned form and a valid government-issued photo ID to the notary. Sign in front of them. The notary administers an oath or affirmation, witnesses your signature, affixes an official seal, and writes in a commission expiration date. In-person notarization of an affidavit generally runs $5 to $15 per signature. Remote online notarization, where agencies accept it, costs more.

Before you walk out, check that the seal is legible and the expiration date is filled in. A smudged seal or missing date can trigger rejection during the responsiveness review.

Submitting the Form With Your Bid

Put the notarized original in your sealed bid package, or upload a scanned copy through the agency’s electronic bidding portal, whichever the solicitation instructions say. Follow the delivery method exactly. Emailing the affidavit when the solicitation requires a physical package is treated the same as not submitting one.⁴

After the bid opening, the contracting officer reviews each submission for responsiveness: all required documents present, properly executed, and consistent with each other. A missing or defective affidavit makes the bid nonresponsive and eliminates it before pricing is ever reviewed.³ There is no grace period after the deadline.

Joint Ventures and Other Gray Areas

If you are bidding as a joint venture, each member firm must independently satisfy the certification. Sharing cost data inside a single bidding team to build a unified proposal is not the problem the form targets. The form targets secret agreements between competing bidders designed to eliminate competition.

Some routine conduct between unrelated firms also stays outside the prohibition: publishing standard price lists or rate schedules, notifying customers of upcoming price changes, and selling the same items to other buyers at the same price you bid. If your situation falls into a genuinely gray area, say you discussed pricing with a firm that ended up bidding separately, attach a written explanation rather than certifying something you cannot honestly swear to. The agency head or their designee decides whether the disclosure was aimed at restricting competition.²

What Happens If the Affidavit Is False

A false affidavit creates stacked exposure. Bid rigging is a felony under the Sherman Act, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million for individuals or $100 million for corporations.⁵ If the court can prove a specific dollar amount of gain or loss, the fine can climb to twice that amount.⁶

The government can also pursue civil recovery under the False Claims Act. As of mid-2025, penalties range from $14,308 to $28,619 per false claim, plus treble damages equal to three times the amount the government overpaid because of the rigged bid.⁷ Victims of a bid-rigging conspiracy can bring their own civil suits to recover up to three times their actual damages.⁶

The administrative side is just as damaging. A contractor convicted of an antitrust violation faces debarment, a government-wide ban on receiving new contracts. Debarment periods generally do not exceed three years, though violations of certain statutes can extend the ban to five.⁸ For a firm that lives on public work, three years off the list can end the business.

Keep a Copy

Keep the executed affidavit with the rest of your bid documents. Under FAR 4.703, contractors must make records available for three years after final payment on a federal contract.⁹ If a specific contract clause sets a longer retention period, that longer period controls. State and local agencies often impose their own schedules, so check the solicitation terms.

Even on bids you did not win, retaining the executed affidavit protects you if a competitor’s submission is later investigated and the agency pulls records from every firm that participated.

1
Federal Highway Administration. Contract Provisions for Federal-aid Construction and Service Contracts Required by FHWA or Other Agencies
2
Acquisition.GOV. Certificate of Independent Price Determination
3
eCFR. 23 CFR 635.112 – Advertising for Bids and Proposals
4
Los Angeles World Airports. Affidavit of Non-Collusion
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1 – Trusts, etc., in Restraint of Trade Illegal
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Price Fixing, Bid Rigging, and Market Allocation Schemes
7
Federal Register. Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustments for 2025
8
eCFR. 48 CFR 9.406-4 – Period of Debarment
9
Acquisition.GOV. 4.703 Policy