ARCHIVED General Instructions to Proponents (GI)

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Legal text for SACC item

GI1 Code of Conduct for Procurement

GI2 Definitions

GI3 Overview of Selection Procedure

GI4 Procurement Business Number

GI5 Responsive Proposals

GI6 Completion of Submission

GI7 Proposal Price

GI8 Communications - Solicitation Period

GI9 Limitation of Submissions

GI10 Licensing Requirements

GI11 Rejection of Proposal

GI12 Federal Contractors Program

GI13 Insurance Requirements

GI14 Joint Venture

GI15 Composition of Consultant Team

GI16 Submission of Proposal

GI17 Late Submissions

GI18 Revision of Proposal

GI19 Acceptance of Proposal

GI20 Legal Capacity

GI21 Debriefing

GI22 Financial Statements

GI23 Performance Evaluation

GI24 Proposal Costs

GI25 Conflict of Interest - Unfair Advantage

GI26 Limitation of Liability

R1410T GI1 (2011-05-16) Code of Conduct for Procurement

  1. To comply with the Code of Conduct for Procurement, proponents must respond to bid solicitations in an honest, fair and comprehensive manner, accurately reflect their capacity to satisfy the requirements stipulated in the bid solicitation and resulting contract, submit bids and enter into contracts only if they will fulfill all obligations of the Contract. To ensure fairness, openness and transparency in the bidding process, the following activities are prohibited:
    1. payment of a contingency fee by any party to a contract to a person to whom the Lobbying Act (1985, c. 44 (4th Supp.)) applies;
    2. corruption, collusion, bid-rigging or any other anti-competitive activity in the bidding process for contracts for the provision of goods or services.
  2. By submitting a proposal, the Proponent certifies that neither the Proponent nor any of the Proponent's Affiliates has ever been convicted of a criminal offence in respect of the activities stated in (a) or (b) above or is the subject of outstanding criminal charges in respect of such activities filed subsequent to September 1, 2010.
  3. Proponents further understand that the commission of certain offences will render them ineligible to be awarded a contract. By submitting a proposal, the Proponent certifies that neither the Proponent nor any of the Proponent's Affiliates has ever been convicted or is the subject of outstanding criminal charges in respect of an offence under any of the following provisions:

    Section 121 (Frauds on the government and Contractor subscribing to election fund), Section 124 (Selling or Purchasing Office), Section 380 (Fraud committed against Her Majesty) or Section 418 (Selling defective stores to Her Majesty) of the Criminal Code of Canada, or under paragraph 80(1)(d) (False entry, certificate or return) subsection 80(2) (Fraud against Her Majesty) or Section 154.01 (Fraud against Her Majesty) of the Financial Administration Act.

  4. For the purpose of this section, business concerns, organizations or individuals are Proponent's Affiliates if, directly or indirectly, 1) either one controls or has the power to control the other, or 2) a third party has the power to control both. Indicia of control, include, but are not limited to, interlocking management or ownership, identity of interests among family members, shared facilities and equipment, common use of employees, or a business entity created following the charges or convictions contemplated in this section which has the same or similar management, ownership, or principal employees as the Proponent that is charged or convicted, as the case may be.
  5. Except in the limited circumstances set out in subsection 6 below, the Contracting Authority will declare non-responsive any proposal in respect of which the information contained in the certifications contemplated above is determined to be untrue in any respect by the Contracting Authority.
  6. Subsection 5 has no application in the circumstances where a proponent has pled guilty of an offence contemplated in Section 1, 1. (b) and the Proponent has provided with its proposal an assurance from the Competition Bureau of Canada indicating that the Proponent has been granted leniency, or in the circumstances where the Proponent provides documentation from the National Parole Board that the Proponent has obtained a criminal pardon in relation to such offence.
  7. The Proponent acknowledges and agrees that the certifications contemplated must remain valid during the period of any resulting contract arising from this bid solicitation.

R1410T GI2 (2011-05-16) Definitions

  1. In this Request for Proposal (RFP), the following words or phrases have the corresponding meaning.

    "Consultant Team": The team of consultants, specialists and subconsultants, including the Proponent, proposed by the Proponent to perform the services required.

    "Key Personnel": Staff of the Proponent, subconsultants and specialists proposed to be assigned to this project.

    "Price Rating": A rating assigned to the price component of a proposal and subsequently used to establish a Price Score for inclusion as a percentage of the total score to be established following the evaluation and rating of technical proposals.

    "Proponent": The person or entity (or, in the case of a joint venture, the persons or entities) which submits a proposal.

    "PWGSC Evaluation Board": The board established to evaluate and rate proposals. Board members represent a broad cross-section of professional qualifications and experience.

    "Technical Rating": A rating assigned to the technical component of a proposal in the selection procedure and subsequently used to establish a Technical Score for inclusion as a percentage of the total score.

R1410T GI3 (2011-05-16) Overview of Selection Procedure

3.1 Proposal

  1. Proposals are submitted following a "two-envelope" procedure, in which Proponents submit the "technical" component of their proposal in one envelope and the proposed price of the services (price proposal) in a second envelope.
  2. The information that Proponents are required to provide is set out in detail elsewhere in the RFP.
  3. In response to the RFP, interested Proponents submit a proposal in which they:
    1. indicate whether the proposal is submitted by an individual firm or by a joint venture;
    2. if the proposal is submitted by a joint venture, describe the proposed legal and working relationships of the joint venture and the benefits to be gained by the formation of the joint venture;
    3. identify the prime consultants and key sub consultants and specialists proposed for inclusion in the Consultant Team, and the proposed organizational structure of the Team;
    4. describe the extent to which proposed members of the Consultant Team have successfully performed services for projects comparable to the project which is the subject of the proposal;
    5. identify the professional accreditation, experience, expertise and competence of the Consultant Team and Key Personnel proposed to be assigned to perform the required services.
    6. comply with all other requirements set out in the RFP.

3.2 Proposal Evaluation and Rating

  1. Technical components of all responsive proposals are reviewed, evaluated and rated by a Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Evaluation Board in accordance with the criteria, components and weight factors set out in the RFP. Upon completion of the evaluation, Technical Ratings are established.
  2. Proposals achieving the minimum Technical Score specified in the Submission Requirements and Evaluation section of the RFP are further considered.
  3. The price envelopes of all responsive proposals are opened upon completion of the technical evaluation. When there are three or more responsive proposals, an average price is determined by adding all the price proposals together and dividing the total by the number of price proposals opened. This calculation will not be conducted when one or two responsive proposals are received.
  4. All price proposals which are greater than 25 percent above the average price will cause their respective complete proposals to be set aside and receive no further consideration.
  5. The remaining price proposals are rated as follows:
    1. The lowest price proposal receives a Price Rating of 100.
    2. The second, third, fourth and fifth lowest prices receive Price Ratings of 80, 60, 40, and 20 respectively. All other price proposals receive a Price Rating of 0.
    3. On the rare occasion where two (or more) price proposals are identical, these price proposals receive the same rating and the corresponding number of following ratings are skipped.
    4. The Price Rating is multiplied by a predetermined percentage factor to establish a Price Score.
  6. A price proposal in excess of any maximum funding limit, when this limit has been set in the Supplementary Instructions to Proponents, may result in disqualification of the complete proposal.

3.3 Total Score

  1. The total overall score (Total Score) assigned to each Proponent's complete proposal is calculated as the aggregate of:
    1. the Technical Score (first envelope of the proposal), and
    2. the Price Score (second envelope of the proposal).
  2. The Proponent receiving the highest Total Score is the first entity that the PWGSC Evaluation Board will recommend be approached in order to finalize details of an agreement for the provision of the required services.

3.4 Notification

PWGSC normally expects to advise in writing unsuccessful Proponents within one week after PWGSC has entered into a contractual arrangement with the successful Proponent.

R1410T GI4 (2010-08-16) Procurement Business Number

Canadian Proponents are required to have a Procurement Business Number (PBN) before Contract award. Proponents may register for a PBN in the Supplier Registration Information system on the Contracts Canada Web site. For non-Internet registration, Proponents may contact the nearest Supplier Registration Agent.

R1410T GI5 (2003-05-30) Responsive Proposals

To be considered responsive, a proposal must meet all of the mandatory requirements set out in the RFP. No further consideration in the selection procedure will be given to a Proponent submitting a non-responsive proposal.

R1410T GI6 (2011-05-16) Completion of Submission

The Proponent shall base the proposal on the applicable proposal documents listed in the Supplementary Instructions to Proponents.

R1410T GI7 (2011-05-16) Proposal Price

Unless specified otherwise elsewhere in the proposal documents:

  1. the price proposal shall be in Canadian currency, and
  2. the price proposal shall not include any amount for the Goods and Services Tax or the Harmonized Sales Tax as may be applicable, and
  3. exchange rate fluctuation protection is not offered, and
  4. any request for exchange rate fluctuation protection will not be considered, and may render the proposal non-responsive.

R1410T GI8 (2011-05-16) Communications - Solicitation Period

To ensure the integrity of the competitive bid process, enquiries and other communications regarding the RFP must be directed only to the Contracting Authority identified in the RFP. Failure to comply with this requirement may result in the proposal being declared non-responsive.

To ensure consistency and quality of information provided to proponents, significant enquiries received and the replies to such enquiries will be provided simultaneously to proponents to which the RFP has been sent, without revealing the sources of the enquiries.

R1410T GI9 (2011-05-16) Limitation of Submissions

  1. A proponent may not submit more than one proposal. This limitation also applies to the persons or entities in the case of a joint venture. If more than one proposal is received from a proponent (or, in the case of a joint venture, from the persons or entities), all such proposals shall be rejected and no further consideration shall be given.
  2. A joint venture is defined as an association of two or more parties which combine their money, property, knowledge, skills, time or other resources in a joint business enterprise agreeing to share the profits and the losses and each having some degree of control over the enterprise.
  3. An arrangement whereby Canada contracts directly with a prime consultant who may retain sub-consultants or specialist consultants to perform portions of the services is not a joint venture arrangement. A sub-consultant or specialist consultant may, therefore, be proposed as part of the Consultant Team by more than one Proponent.
  4. Notwithstanding paragraph 3. above, in order to avoid any conflict of interest, or any perception of conflict of interest, no person or entity acting as an individual Proponent or as part of a joint venture Proponent, shall be proposed as a member of another Proponent's Consultant Team, either as a sub-consultant or specialist consultant or as part of another joint venture Proponent. Failure to comply with this limitation will result in all submissions so involved being rejected.
  5. Any joint venture entered into for the provision of professional services or other services must be in full compliance with the requirements of any provincial or territorial law pertaining thereto in the Province or Territory in which the project is located.

R1410T GI10 (2011- 05-16) Licensing Requirements

  1. Consultant Team members and Key Personnel shall be, or be eligible to be licensed, certified or otherwise authorized to provide the necessary professional services to the full extent that may be required by provincial or territorial law in the Province or Territory in which the project is located.
  2. By virtue of submission of a proposal, the Proponent certifies that the Proponent's Consultant Team and Key Personnel are in compliance with the requirements of subsection 1 above. The Proponent acknowledges that PWGSC reserves the right to verify any information in this regard and that false or erroneous certification may result in the proposal being declared non-responsive.

R1410T GI11 (2011-05-16) Rejection of Proposal

  1. Canada may reject a proposal where any of the following circumstances is present:
    1. the Proponent has been declared ineligible for selection, following unsatisfactory performance in a previous project as determined in accordance with the department's performance review procedures;
    2. an employee, sub-consultant or specialist consultant included as part of the proposal has been declared ineligible, for selection for work with the department in accordance with the performance review procedure referred to in paragraph 1.(a), which would render the employee, sub-consultant or specialist consultant ineligible to bid on the requirement, or the portion of the requirement the employee, sub-consultant or specialist consultant is to perform;
    3. with respect to current or prior transactions with the Government of Canada,
      1. the Proponent is bankrupt or where, for whatever reason, its activities are rendered inoperable for an extended period;
      2. evidence, satisfactory to Canada, of fraud, bribery, fraudulent misrepresentation or failure to comply with any law protecting individuals against any manner of discrimination, has been received with respect to the Proponent, any of its employees, any sub-consultant or any specialist consultant included as part of the proposal;
      3. Canada has exercised its contractual remedies of taking the services out of the consultant's hands, suspension or termination for default with respect to a contract with the Proponent, any of its employees, any sub-consultant or any specialist consultant included as part of the proposal;
      4. Canada determines that the Proponent's performance on other contracts, including the quality of the services provided and the quality and timeliness of the delivery of the project, is sufficiently poor to jeopardize the successful completion of the requirement being bid on.
  2. Where Canada intends to reject a proposal pursuant to subsection 1.(c), the Contracting Authority will so inform the Proponent and provide the Proponent ten (10) days within which to make representations, before making a final decision on the proposal rejection.

R1410T GI12 (2011-05-16) Federal Contractors Program

  1. The Federal Contractors Program (FCP) requires that some firms, including a Proponent who is a member of a joint venture, bidding for federal government contracts, valued at $200,000 or more (including all applicable taxes), make a formal commitment to implement employment equity. This is a condition precedent to contract award. If the Proponent, or, if the Proponent is a joint venture and if any member of the joint venture, is subject to the FCP, evidence of its commitment must be provided before the award of the Contract.

    Firms who have been declared ineligible contractors by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) are no longer eligible to receive government contracts over the threshold for solicitation of bids as set out in the Government Contracts Regulations. Firms may be declared ineligible contractors either as a result of a finding of non-compliance by HRSDC, or following their voluntary withdrawal from the FCP for a reason other than the reduction of their workforce to less than 100 employees. Any bids from ineligible contractors, including a bid from a joint venture that has a member who is an ineligible contractor, will be declared non-responsive.

  2. The Proponent certifies its status with the FCP by completing the declaration form.

R1410T GI13 (2007-05-25) Insurance Requirements

The successful Proponent shall be required to obtain and maintain Professional Liability and Commercial General Liability insurance coverage in accordance with the requirements set out elsewhere in the proposal documents.

R1410T GI14 (2011-05-16) Joint Venture

  1. A joint venture is an association of two or more parties who combine their money, property, knowledge, expertise or other resources in a single joint business enterprise, sometimes referred as a consortium, to bid together on a requirement. Proponents who bid as a joint venture must indicate clearly that it is a joint venture and provide the following information:
    1. the name of each member of the joint venture;
    2. the Procurement Business Number of each member of the joint venture;
    3. the name of the representative of the joint venture, i.e. the member chosen by the other members to act on their behalf, if applicable;
    4. the name of the joint venture, if applicable.
  2. If the information is not clearly provided in the proposal, the Proponent must provide the information on request from the Contracting Authority.
  3. The proposal and any resulting contract must be signed by all the members of the joint venture unless one member has been appointed to act on behalf of all members of the joint venture. The Contracting Authority may, at any time, require each member of the joint venture to confirm that the representative has been appointed with full authority to act as its representative for the purposes of the bid solicitation and any resulting contract. If a contract is awarded to a joint venture, all members of the joint venture will be jointly and severally or solidarily liable for the performance of any resulting contract.

R1410T GI15 (2003-05-30) Composition of Consultant Team

By submitting a proposal, the Proponent represents and warrants that the entities and persons proposed in the proposal to perform the required services will be the entities and persons that will perform the services in the fulfillment of the project under any contractual arrangement arising from submission of the proposal. If the Proponent has proposed any person in fulfillment of the project who is not an employee of the Proponent, the Proponent warrants that it has written permission from such person (or the employer of such person) to propose the services of such person in relation to the services to be performed.

R1410T GI16 (2011-05-16) Submission of Proposal

  1. Canada requires that each proposal, at closing date and time or upon request from the Contracting Authority, be signed by the Proponent or by an authorized representative of the Proponent. If a proposal is submitted by a joint venture, it must be in accordance with section GI14.
  2. It is the Proponent's responsibility to:
    1. submit a signed proposal, duly completed, in the format requested, on or before the closing date and time set;
    2. send its proposal only to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Bid Receiving Unit specified on page 1 of the RFP or to the address specified in the RFP ;
    3. obtain clarification of the requirements contained in the RFP, if necessary, before submitting a proposal;
    4. ensure that the Proponent's name, return address, the solicitation number and description, and solicitation closing date and time are clearly visible on the envelope or the parcel(s) containing the proposal; and
    5. provide a comprehensive and sufficiently detailed proposal that will permit a complete evaluation in accordance with the criteria set out in this RFP.
  3. The technical and price components of the proposal must be submitted in separate, easily identified envelopes in accordance with the instructions contained in the proposal documents. Both envelopes shall be submitted as one package which shall clearly and conspicuously display and indicate on the outside of the package the information identified in subsection 2.(d) above.
  4. Timely and correct delivery of proposals to the office designated for receipt of proposals is the sole responsibility of the Proponent. PWGSC will not assume or have transferred to it those responsibilities. All risks and consequences of incorrect delivery of proposals are the responsibility of the Proponent.
  5. Proposals and supporting information may be submitted in either English or French.

R1410T GI17 (2011-05-16) Late Submissions

Submissions delivered after the stipulated closing date and time will be returned unopened.

R1410T GI18 (2011-05-16) Revision of Proposal

A proposal submitted may be amended by letter or facsimile provided the revision is received at the office designated for the receipt of proposals, on or before the date and time set for the receipt of proposals. The revision must be on the Proponent's letterhead or bear a signature that identifies the Proponent, and must clearly identify the change(s) to be applied to the original proposal. The revision must also include the information identified in GI16.2.(d).

R1410T GI19 (2011-05-16) Acceptance of Proposal

  1. Canada may accept any proposal, or may reject any or all proposals.
  2. In the case of error in the extension or addition of unit prices, the unit price will govern.
  3. While Canada may enter into an agreement or contractual arrangement without prior negotiation, Canada reserves the right to negotiate with Proponents on any procurement.
  4. Canada reserves the right to cancel or amend the RFP at any time.

R1410T GI20 (2011-05-16) Legal Capacity

The Proponent must have the legal capacity to contract. If the Proponent is a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporate body, the Proponent must provide, if requested by the Contracting Authority, a statement and any requested supporting documentation indicating the laws under which it is registered or incorporated together with the registered or corporate name and place of business. This also applies to proponents submitting a proposal as a joint venture.

R1410T GI21 (2011-05-16) Debriefing

A debriefing will be provided, on request, only following entry by PWGSC into a contractual arrangement with the successful Proponent. Should a Proponent desire a debriefing, the Proponent should contact the person identified on the front page of the RFP within 15 working days of the notification of the results of the solicitation. The debriefing will include an outline of the strengths and weaknesses of the submission, referring to the evaluation criteria. The confidentiality of information relating to other submissions will be protected. The debriefing may be provided in writing, by telephone or in person.

R1410T GI22 (2003-05-30) Financial Statements

  1. In order to confirm a Proponent's financial capability to perform the subject requirement, the Contracting Authority reserves the right to have access, during the proposal evaluation phase, to current proponent financial information. If requested, the financial information to be provided shall include, but not be limited to, the Proponent's most recent audited financial statements or financial statements certified by the Proponent's chief financial officer.
  2. Should the Proponent provide the requested information to Canada in confidence while indicating that the disclosed information is confidential, then Canada will treat the information in a confidential manner as provided in the Access to Information Act.
  3. In the event that a proposal is found to be non-compliant on the basis that the Proponent is considered not to be financially capable of performing the subject requirement, official notification shall be provided to the proponent.

R1410T GI23 (2011-05-16) Performance Evaluation

Proponents shall take note that the performance of the Consultant during and upon completion of the services shall be evaluated by Canada. The evaluation include all or some of the following criteria: Design, Quality of Results, Management, Time and Cost. Should the Consultant's performance be considered unsatisfactory, the Consultant may be declared ineligible for future contracts. The form PWGSC-TPSGC 2913-1, SELECT - Consultant Performance Evaluation Report, is used to record the performance.

R1410T GI24 (2011-05-16) Proposal Costs

No payment will be made for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of a proposal in response to the Request for proposal. Costs associated with preparing and submitting a proposal, as well as any costs incurred by the Proponent associated with the evaluation of the proposal, are the sole responsibility of the Proponent.

R1410T GI25 (2011-05-16) Conflict of Interest - Unfair Advantage

  1. In order to protect the integrity of the procurement process, proponents are advised that Canada may reject a proposal in the following circumstances:
    1. if the Proponent, any of its sub-consultants, any of their respective employees or former employees was involved in any manner in the preparation of the bid solicitation or in any situation of conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest;
    2. if the Proponent, any of its sub-consultants, any of their respective employees or former employees had access to information related to the bid solicitation that was not available to other proponents and that would, in Canada's opinion, give or appear to give the Proponent an unfair advantage.
  2. The experience acquired by a proponent who is providing or has provided the goods and services described in the bid solicitation (or similar goods or services) will not, in itself, be considered by Canada as conferring an unfair advantage or creating a conflict of interest. This proponent remains however subject to the criteria established above.
  3. Where Canada intends to reject a proposal under this section, the Contracting Authority will inform the Proponent and provide the Proponent an opportunity to make representations before making a final decision. Proponents who are in doubt about a particular situation should contact the Contracting Authority before bid closing. By submitting a proposal, the Proponent represents that it does not consider itself to be in conflict of interest nor to have an unfair advantage. The Proponent acknowledges that it is within Canada's sole discretion to determine whether a conflict of interest, unfair advantage or an appearance of conflict of interest or unfair advantage exists.

R1410T GI26 (2011-05-16) Limitation of Liability

Except as expressly and specifically permitted in this RFP, no Proponent or Potential Proponent shall have any claim for any compensation of any kind whatsoever in relation to this RFP, or any aspect of the procurement process, and by submitting a proposal each Proponent shall be deemed to have agreed that it has no claim.