This article is an extract from the 5th edition of Government Procurement.
In its September 2020 report entitled Recommendation Report on Contract Management Related to Generator Set Calls for Tenders at the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal, Montreal’s Inspector General determined that there was collaboration between the engineers retained by the municipality to design specifications for building generators for public housing buildings and the distributors of the required products. The Inspector General found that the activities went beyond general market research and resulted in the distributors influencing the final tender call specifications. The report raised concerns over the biasing of the specifications and the failure of the engineers to meet their contractual duties as independent consultants to the municipality in drafting specifications based on neutral performance or functional requirements. The report directed the municipality to adopt remedial measures including amendments to the municipality’s professional services contracts to include express provisions confirming a consultant’s legal obligation to draft neutral specifications, as well as amendments to the municipality’s tendering documents to expressly prohibit any person involved in preparing tendering documents from bidding on any resulting contract opportunity.
