Reading a federal RFP: mandatory criteria, rated criteria and how the winner is picked

A federal solicitation is long, but most of it is standard. Public Services and Procurement Canada’s documents follow the same order: six parts plus annexes. Two parts decide most bids: Part 2, the instructions to bidders (including how to challenge the process), and Part 4, how bids are evaluated and how the winner is picked. Read those two first.

Mandatory criteria: pass or fail

You must meet every mandatory criterion to move on in the evaluation. Each is pass or fail, and one miss ends the bid however good the rest is. Make a checklist of them before writing anything, and answer each one where the evaluators will look for it.

Point-rated criteria: where bids are won

Rated criteria score the value a bid adds above the mandatory requirements: your approach and methodology, the experience of the company and the people you name. Each comes with points and often a scale saying what earns them. Write to the scale; evaluators score what is on the page, not what they may know about you.

How the winner is picked

The “basis of selection” in Part 4 is one of these:

• Lowest price: the lowest-priced bid that meets all the mandatory requirements wins.
• Best overall value: technical score and price are combined (for example 60% technical, 40% price), or the winner is the lowest price per technical point.
• Highest technical score within a budget: the best-rated bid at or under a stated maximum price.

Of the 22,034 CanadaBuys notices since Aug 2022 that state a selection method:

CanadaBuys tender notices, as published. Each open tender’s page here shows its own method.

A compliant bid is no guarantee of a contract: under best value, a more expensive bid can win.

Questions, amendments and the closing date

• Your only point of contact is the contracting authority named in the document.
• Questions go in writing before the question deadline. Answers are published for everyone as amendments on the tender’s CanadaBuys page, so check it until the day it closes.
• Amendments can change the requirements or move the closing date.
• You can change and resubmit your bid until the tender closes. Bids are not accepted after the closing time.
• Sign every certification and form the document asks for; a missing signature can sink a good bid.

After the award: debriefs and complaints

If you lose, ask for a debriefing. It tells you how and why the contract went to the winner, and the strengths and weaknesses of your bid. Prepare your questions beforehand.

If you think the process was unfair, two bodies take complaints, with short deadlines:

• The Canadian International Trade Tribunal hears complaints about procurements covered by trade agreements, at or above the amounts below: generally within 10 working days of the award’s public notice, or of when you learned of the problem. A department can be asked to fix it first; the Tribunal’s page explains how that changes the deadline.
• The Office of the Procurement Ombud reviews award complaints under $34,700 for goods or $139,000 for services, within 30 working days of public notice of the award, and complaints about how a contract is administered, at any value.

Filing with the wrong one doesn’t stop either deadline: check which applies before you file.