This article is an excerpt from Government Procurement, which is available for purchase.
In its August 2016 decision in Penney v. Eastern Region Integrated Health Authority, the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court rejected the argument of a losing bidder in a transportation services tender and found that the public body was under no legal duty to confirm representations of compliance made by other bidders. As the court noted, unless there is collusion or the tender call rules expressly create an obligation to investigate compliance, a purchasing body is entitled to take a bidder’s representation of compliance at face value. The court also confirmed that information not known to the purchaser at the time of bid evaluation is not relevant to determining bid compliance.
