Phase Three: Acquisition

The contracting authority will prepare and issue the solicitation. Depending on the value of the requirement, and the nature of the goods or service, the contracting authority will be either ESDC, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), or Shared Services Canada (SSC).

The contracting authority will use the SOW and evaluation criteria to build a solicitation document with a bidder's instructions portion and a resulting contract portion, based on templates maintained by the applicable contracting authority. The project authority should ensure all of their requirements are covered in the solicitation, resulting contract and the SOW including any security requirements.

For most professional services, the solicitation is typically done under one of the many supply arrangement tools put in place by PSPC, under their Professional Services Tools.

The contracting authority will develop payment terms based on the client’s requirements which will be included in the solicitation documents and the subsequent contracts. The payment terms dictate how and when a contractor will be paid, such as a firm lot price following completion of all the work, or milestone payments (one type of progress payment) for completion of a clearly defined portion of work.

The following are the bases of payment that may be used:

• firm price;
• firm price subject to economic price adjustment;
• fixed time rate;
• cost reimbursable with incentive fee;
• cost reimbursable with fixed fee;
• cost reimbursable with fee based on actual costs;
• cost reimbursable with no fee.

For more information on bases on payment, please consult the Supply Manual.

Progress Payments

Progress payments are payments made by, or on behalf of, the Government of Canada, under the terms of a contract after the performance of the part of the contract for which the payment is made, but before the performance of the whole contract is complete.

In all contracts, the rate(s) of payment must be specified for the entire duration or quantity required, including all phases, specified option periods or quantities. When the above is not possible, as in some multi-phase, multi-year or renewable (option year) contracts, payments for each year or phase should be based on a pre-agreed rate or formula that is specified in the Terms of Payment of the contract.

Advance Payments

An advance payment is a payment that is made before goods or services are provided.

Advance payments are acceptable only in exceptional circumstances, i.e., when they are essential to program objectives. Examples would be software licensing

The Government Contracts Regulations permit advance payments in certain circumstances. If advance payment clauses are to be included in contracts, they must adhere to the principles of parliamentary control, the requirements of the Financial Administration Act and the provisions of the appropriation Acts themselves.

Where contract approval is within ESDC’s contracting authority, ESDC can approve advance payments. However, as required by the Regulations, where contract approval is beyond departmental authority, advance payments require Treasury Board approval.

For more information, please consult the Directive on Payments.

Bidders will have the opportunity to pose questions or request clarifications while the solicitation is posted. Questions from bidders are generally answered in a question and answer format in an amendment to the solicitation which goes to all bidders. Questions will be sent to the CFOB Procurement Specialist, or in the case of PSPC-led procurements, the PSPC Contracting Officer. Clients will be required to provide answers to any technical questions received. As a best practice, answers should be concise, but clear, and stated in plain language. One word answers, such as "no" or "no change" should be avoided.

All personnel involved in an evaluation process should familiarize themselves with the process by consulting the ESDC Bid Evaluation Guide, which provides a complete overview of the bid evaluation process, including guidance in establishing bid evaluation criteria and the contractor selection methodology.

The evaluation process must be clearly laid out in the solicitation document.

After bid closing, the Contracting Authority (CA) separates the received bids into technical and financial portions. The CA is responsible for the non-technical components, such as Certifications and financial elements. The financial information must not be disclosed to the evaluation team before the completion of the technical evaluation without authorization from ESDC Procurement Operations management.

The Business Owner is responsible for the technical components of the bid. The BO will establish the bid evaluation team and may choose technical experts to review the technical bids, including third-party assistance. Care must be taken to ensure that there is no conflict of interest between any member of the evaluation team and a bid submitted in response to the solicitation.

The technical evaluation of the bids must be done in accordance with the Bid Evaluation Guide. Each member of the evaluation team must sign and return these instructions to the Contracting Authority before proceeding with their evaluation. The CA must keep the signed copies in the procurement file.

All notes, rough drafts, correspondence and evaluations must also be kept in the requirement file to be available in the case of requests for Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP), complaints to the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman (OPO) and to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), or legal proceedings.

The CFOB Contracting Authority will determine the successful bid based on the results of the combined technical and financial evaluation in accordance with the bid evaluation criteria and the contractor selection method detailed in the solicitation.

When there are repetitive requirements for the same or similar services, the contracting team may put a Contract with Task Authorizations in place. A Contract with Task Authorizations is a method of supply for services under where a portion of or all of the work will be performed on an "as and when requested basis", utilizing predetermined conditions and pricing. Task Authorizations (TAs) are issued by the Contracting Specialist in order to authorize work. Each TA forms a part of the larger Contract with Task Authorizations.

In order to establish Contract with TAs, the following items should be considered:

1. the category and type of services are well defined;
2. a pre-arranged pricing basis and contractual conditions can be established at the outset, usually through competition, and there is no need nor any intention to negotiate further at the time of the task authorization;
3. the services are readily available and are to be ordered (requested through a task authorization), if and when the requirements arise.

Please search the iService Catalogue for existing Contracts with Task Authorizations (Capacity on Demand for Statement of Work Writers, Capacity on Demand for HR Process, etc.)

The total estimated expenditure of the requirement (the anticipated total value of all accumulated task authorization) proposed to be satisfied by the Contract with Task Authorization method of supply, Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) included, must be used to determine the applicability of any procedures required by any trade agreement to which the Government of Canada is signatory.

When procedural requirements of any trade agreement apply to a Contact with TAs, the complete procurement process, including all contracts authorized for use and the resulting TAs, fall within the purview of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.

A Contract with Task Authorizations is entered in myEMS (SAP) as an outline agreement with the limit entered as the contract limit. At ESDC, Outline Agreements in myEMS (SAP) are NOT funded which means that the agreement value is NOT committed to any client’s budget. Commitments are handled through each individual TA.

The project authority will work with security advisors to obtain core security clauses.

If there are IT requirements that must also be met, IT security will provide the project authority with additional instructions and clauses that should be inserted into the SOW.

The solicitation will typically state that security requirements must be met by the bidder prior to contract award, as ESDC's default position. In such a case, the solicitation should also state that if security requirements are not expected to be met in a timely manner (based on operational requirements), then Canada may choose to go to the next responsive bidder. In some cases, ESDC may require the security requirements to be met at bid closing. This should be used with care.

See Security in Contracting – Quick Steps for more information.

The Federal Contractors Program (FCP) requires that impacted suppliers to Canada seek to achieve and maintain a workforce that is representative of the Canadian workforce, including members of the four designated groups under the Employment Equity Act. If a contractor is found to be in non-compliance with the FCP, then the contractor's name will be placed on the FCP Limited Eligibility to Bid List. Currently, there are no names on this list.

Under the Integrity Regime, suppliers are ineligible for contract award for 10 years for being convicted of certain offences such as fraud, bribery or tax evasion, within the past 3 years. The period of ineligibility may be reduced to 5 years under certain conditions along with the requirement of an administrative agreement. The Integrity Regime applies to all procurement and real property transactions.

Contracts for the services of former public servants in receipt of a pension or of a lump sum payment are to bear the closest public scrutiny and reflect fairness in spending public funds. Contracting authorities should exercise extreme discretion when contracting with former employees in receipt of a pension or of a lump sum payment.

As per the Contracting Policy Notice: 2012-2, departments are required to report on all contracts awarded to a former public servant in receipt of a Public Service Superannuation Act (PSSA) pension.

Service requirements must include the appropriate Former Public Servant certifications in the solicitation. In the case of sole-source requirements, a Former Public Servant certification must be completed by the contractor.

A justification for contracting with a former public servant that includes price substantiation, risk mitigation and cost control measures to adjust for pension or lump sum payments as appropriate must be documented in the procurement file.

Competitive service contracts awarded to former public servants are subject to the department’s basic contracting limits indicated in the TB Contracts Directive.

For non-competitive service contracts, minister’s approval is required prior to entering into a contract with a former public servant:

• in receipt of a pension under the Public Service Superannuation Act (PSSA) when the estimated total contract exceeds $200,000; or
• in receipt of a pension under the PSSA, when the annualized rate of remuneration exceeds $200,000 and the contract term exceeds 90 working days; or
• if they are in receipt of a lump sum payment when the total fees payable will exceed $5,000 during the lump sum payment period as provided in the Workforce Reduction Directive (WRD) made pursuant to the Public Sector Compensation Act, and former members of the Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in receipt of lump sum payments through corresponding force reduction programs, regardless of whether one or more than one contract is involved.

Where the CFOB Procurement Specialist is the contracting authority
The procurement specialist will prepare, award and sign the contract on behalf of ESDC (this includes finalizing the Purchase Order, or PO in myEMS). The procurement specialist will get the contractor to sign the contract if required, and will then send the client the signed contract, to be kept in the requirement file.

The procurement specialists may choose to electronically sign contracts using their MyKey to create a Secure Electronic Signature.

Where PSPC or SSC is the contracting authority
The PSPC or SSC contracting authority will prepare, award and sign the contract on behalf of ESDC; however the CFOB procurement specialist will finalize the purchase order (PO) in myEMS. The procurement specialist will receive a signed copy of the finalized contract from the contracting authority, and send a copy to the client to be kept in the requirement file.

Debriefings are a way to explain to unsuccessful bidders why their bid or proposal was not considered. A debriefing demonstrates the fairness, openness, and transparency of the federal government contracting process. Procurement specialists can improve future solicitations by using the comments and suggestions provided by bidders / suppliers. Debriefings may be provided to bidders upon request, and generally follow the issuance of an initial regret letter or written debriefing. Informal debriefing sessions must include an overview of the evaluation criteria used in the solicitation, and an objective account of where the unsuccessful bidder met and did not meet the criteria in the requirement. Debriefings may be carried out by way of an email, a letter, a telephone call, or face-to face. A written record of the debriefing session must be kept on the contract file.