This article is an excerpt from Government Procurement, which is available for purchase.
In its May 2016 determination in Dominion Diving Limited v. Department of Public Works and Government Services, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal rejected the complainant’s allegations of hidden evaluation criteria in a dispute over a diving tools equipment RFP. While the Tribunal agreed that the RFP criteria contained some ambiguities, it maintained that bidders had the onus of seeking clarifications. As the Tribunal stated, “tender documents that are ambiguous, but sufficiently intelligible to allow for the asking of clarifying questions” will not be deemed to be using hidden criteria. The complaint was therefore rejected due to the complainant’s failure to seek pre-bid clarifications.
