7.1.2. Appendix B: Regret Letter to Unsuccessful Bidders/Offerors/Suppliers - Non-responsive Bid/Offer/Arrangement
Attention! As the transition to CanadaBuys is ongoing, Supply Manual references to ABE are to be interpreted as a generic system reference only. Users of the SAP Ariba environment should adapt their activities accordingly.
Buyers are advised to consult the tools available on CanadaBuys for guidance and procedures on completing procurement transactions in the SAP Ariba environment.
Note to contracting officer: Because the evaluation methodology for different procurement varies, this letter will have to be tailored to the individual requirement. This letter has been drafted assuming that the bid/offer/arrangement was declared non-responsive because it has not met one or more mandatory requirements. Contracting officers should use the other sample regret letter provided in Appendix A 7.1.1: Regret Letter to Unsuccessful Bidders/Offerors/Suppliers - Responsive Bid/Offer/Arrangement if the bid/offer/arrangement was declared responsive but simply wasn't the highest-ranked.
____________(insert department address)
________(insert date)
_____________(insert supplier's name and address)
Attention: ___________(insert name of addressee)
Dear Mr./Mrs. ____________(insert the addressee's last name):
Subject: Solicitation No. ________
Thank you for your ____________(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") submitted in response to our request for ____________(insert brief description of goods/services).
This is to inform you that a _________(insert "contract" or "Standing Offer (SO)" or "Supply Arrangement (SA)") will not be issued to you for this requirement. A _________(insert "contract" or "SO" or "SA") has been awarded to the successful ________(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") submitted by ________(insert name of successful bidder/offeror/supplier) in response to the above-noted solicitation. The price of the awarded/issued _________(insert "contract" or "SO" or "SA") is $_________(insert value of awarded contract or SO or SA) excluding Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax, as applicable.
As indicated in the solicitation, a ______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") was required to meet each and every mandatory requirement. Unfortunately, the evaluating team determined that your ______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") did not comply with all the mandatory requirements of the solicitation, including the following:
__________________(insert description of non-compliance)
To provide you with information on the characteristics and relative advantages of the successful _________(insert "bid" or "SO" or "SA"), you are informed that the successful _______(insert "bid" or "SO" or "SA") has satisfied all the mandatory requirements of the solicitation and scored on the technical point-rated requirements (insert table below if relevant), as follows:
| Comparison | Technical Score | Financial Score |
|---|---|---|
| Successful_______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") | ||
| Your _______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") |
Instruction to contracting officer:
- If you did not score the bid/offer because it was disqualified early in the process, add the following sentence (i.e. As a result of finding your …) and delete the second row in the above table (i.e. Your ____...).
- If you are providing the unsuccessful bidder/offeror/supplier with its score, delete the following sentence (i.e. As a result of finding your …).
As a result of finding your ______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") to be non-responsive, your ______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement") was disqualified and Canada did not proceed with your evaluation and did not determine a technical score for your ______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement").
I would like to thank you for submitting your ______(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement")) and your interest in being a supplier to the Government of Canada. Your participation is appreciated, and I hope that you will continue to bid on procurement opportunities offered by Public Works and Government Services Canada.
Should you require further information regarding the evaluation of your ________(insert "bid" or "offer" or "arrangement"), please do not hesitate to contact me.
When one or more trade agreements apply to a procurement process, recourse is available to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), but there are only 10 working days to bring the complaint. When those 10 working days begins depends on whether you have objected to PWGSC and when it is clear that Canada will not be providing you with the relief you have requested. Please consult the CITT’s website for details at Procurement Inquiries. Complaints to the Tribunal can only be filed by suppliers of parties to the trade agreements that apply to the procurement. Where none of the trade agreements apply, recourse may be available to the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman (OPO), in which case the limitation period is normally 30 working days. More detailed information about the CITT, OPO and the limitation periods, as well as information about other venues that may be available for recourse, can be found on the Bid Challenge and Recourse Mechanisms page on the Buyandsell.gc.ca website.
___________(insert name of contracting authority)
Contracting Authority
Telephone: ____-____-______
E-mail: ________@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca
cc: ________(insert any additional names of people who should receive a copy)