This article is an extract from the 5th edition of Government Procurement.
In its December 2018 determination in Valley Associates Global Security Corporation v. Department of Public Works and Government Services, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal ruled that a website link contained in a bid failed to satisfy the submission requirements relating to a compliance issue since government evaluators should not be required to search a supplier’s website for information that is not directly included in a submitted bid. The dispute dealt with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police solicitation for the provision of general duty rifle plates. After finding that the complainant’s bid failed to address a technical compliance issue, the government evaluators searched the manufacturer’s website to try to determine whether the proposed product satisfied the requirement in question. While that search proved unsuccessful and the bid was ultimately rejected, the Tribunal expressed concern over this process, stating that it was “somewhat troubled that the Technical Authority searched the manufacturer’s website for additional information relating to the uncertainty regarding the submitted samples” since the “search had the potential of being problematic should Valley have ultimately been declared either responsive or non-responsive based on information found on the website” since that information was not provided by the bidder in its bid.
As this case illustrates, unless the bidding rules clearly establish other evaluation processes, evaluators should limit their evaluations to the information directly provided by bidders and should avoid assuming responsibility of conducting their own independent investigations as a means of confirming a bidder’s compliance.
