How to get a good deal

Perhaps I've missed something here.

At the last council meeting we had to decide how much we thought we could afford to pay for the new contract to deal with our waste. This will be taking over from our landfill sites, and will probably be a company running an energy from waste plant. We're about to enter the last phase of the tendering process, and the council have to decide how much we think we can pay. If the tenders come in over this figure, the matter will have to be referred back to the council.

All good so far.

This subject was discussed in secret, as a "part 2" item of the agenda. This means that the public and press cannot be present. Fair enough I thought - why would be want the people bidding to know how much we could afford. It would rather give the game away.

Then I got up the next day to find out that council have sent out a press release to the papers with the figure we agreed in it. This has now been published in most titles. Therefore the bidders will know what we are expecting to pay them.

I can't imagine either of the tenders will come in much below that figure, do you?