Assessment process overview—Assessor Guidance Document—Supply Arrangement Requirements

Types of findings

• Major non-conformance—policy (documentation) – Missing or incomplete documentation on file.
• Major non-conformance—policy (other) – Action taken (or lack thereof) by the Contracting Authority that:
  1. Results in a contravention of Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Procurement, or
  2. Results in a contravention of Federal or Provincial legislation.
• Major non-conformance—procedural – Action taken (or lack thereof) by the Contracting Authority that:
  1. Results in the improper use of the CPSS ePortal or a specific harmonized procurement tool that has a serious impact on the integrity of the procurement, or
  2. Has been noted in previous assessments of the same Federal Department User or area for which effective remedial action has not been taken, or
  3. A significant number of Minor non-conformances are noted for the same general subject area

  Note

  In such cases, review of the non-conformances would be done upon completion of the draft assessment and if c) above applies, the Minor non-conformances are rolled into a single Major non-conformance that refers to all occurrences of the action taken (or not taken as the case may be).

• Minor non-conformance—Action taken (or lack thereof) by the Contracting Authority that results in a contravention of the rules governing the use of the CPSS ePortal or a specific harmonized procurement tool. However, the non-conformance does not meet the criteria applicable to either type of Major non-conformance.
• Observation—This type of finding will be applied when either a Minor or Major non-conformance cannot be raised due to:
  1. (Insufficient information): Insufficient information available to the Assessor, or
  2. (Documentation): Absence of information required to determine compliance, the lack of which has already resulted in the issuance of a Major non-conformance against a related element
  3. (Other): The Assessor lacks the subject matter expertise to make a determination, or
  4. (Other): Action taken (or lack thereof) by the Contracting Authority that may result in a contravention of either TB Directive on the Management of Procurement or the rules governing the use of the CPSS ePortal or a specific harmonized procurement tool or results in or could result in additional contractual risk to Canada

Assignment of non-conformances and other findings

1. If a Major non-conformance is noted against an element that has other main elements related to it, only a single Major non-conformance will be assigned to the main element. In cases where a main element has a number of related sub-elements, if a Major non-conformance is cited against the main element the Assessor will assign the “Observation” type finding to each affected sub-element. In both cases, a note will refer the reader of the report back to the non-conformance referenced against the main element or sub-element as the case may be.

   For example, Contracting Authority fails to place the search results on file. This will result in a Major – Policy (Documentation) Non-Conformance for sub-element 2.01 (Search Results - Documentation). Because the search is not on file, compliance to sub-element 2.02 (Search Results – Criteria) could not be confirmed. In this case, the finding type “Observation (Documentation)” would be assigned and a note would be added to the report referring the reader back to the non-conformance referenced in element 2.01 (Search Results - Documentation). Subsequently, the Assessor cannot determine compliance to elements 3.17 (Supplier’s List), 3.20 (Bid Solicitation Amendments), 8.05 (Category and Level) and 8.06 (Security Clearance). The same process as previously noted would apply (i.e. citing of an Observation (Documentation) finding).

2. In certain situations, multiple contracts may result from a single bid solicitation document. In such cases, the assessment report will be comprised of, in essence, two parts. The first part will deal with the process that led up to the issuance of multiple contracts. Non-conformances noted for element groups 1 to 7 and 12 will be reported only once and not against each contract issued. For element groups 8 to 11, a separate assessment is done on the each contract issued. Therefore, if the assessor determines that a non-conformance exists under element 6.02 – (Evaluation Report – Mandatory Technical Evaluation Criteria (Part A)), for example, only a single non-conformance is raised, even though multiple contracts were issued. However, if the assessor determines that the same non-conformance exists for element 8.03 (Contract – Requirement Details (Part A, General)) for all contracts issued, then each contract shall be assigned its own non-conformance.

Other information

The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) which replaces the obligations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), entered into force on July 1, 2020. NAFTA will continue to apply to procurements commenced prior to CUSMA’s effective date of July 1, 2020, until those procurements are complete. With respect to the methods of supply, NAFTA is replaced by the Canada Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA).

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) has the authority to inquire into complaints by potential suppliers concerning federal government procurements that are covered by Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), World Trade Organization-Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP), Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) or any other applicable trade agreement. Based on the potential value of requirements for the various harmonized procurement tools, all the harmonized procurement tools (except for ProServices) were subject to CFTA and WTO. Therefore, Suppliers could submit complaints directly to the CITT. In the case of ProServices, a Supplier could submit a complaint to either CITT or to Office of the Procurement Ombudsman.

Definition section

1. Reference to "applicable taxes" in this guidance document and any resultant assessment report includes Provincial Sales Tax (PST) (Quebec only), Goods and Services Tax (GST), or Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).

2. Rule “value at or below $40,000”: Clients may direct a contract at or below $40,000 (applicable taxes included) to Suppliers qualified in the applicable Category (ies) in accordance with the Government Contracts Regulations.

Report preface

Each assessment report shall be prefaced, where applicable, with the following notes:

1. For assessment purposes:
   1. Identified Users/Federal Department Users are also referred to in the CPSS ePortal as “Clients”
   2. In the context of this guidance document, the Identified User/Federal Department User who initiates the procurement process is considered to be the Contracting Authority and is referred to as such in this guidance document
   3. The individual(s) who require(s) the professional services is (are) considered to be the Client. It is noted that the Federal Department User (referred to in the CPSS ePortal as the "Client") may be the client and the Contracting Authority simultaneously
   4. Individuals who are granted access to the CPSS ePortal to conduct searches (referred to in the CPSS ePortal as a "Purchaser") are referred to in this guidance document as the Contracting Authority
   5. Responses submitted by Suppliers as a result of a bid solicitation document sent to them are considered to be bids
2. The assessment(s) findings detailed in this report are based on an assessment of the contract file at a specific time in the procurement process. One or more of the contracts assessed may still be active and, as a result, future actions taken by the Contracting Authority could have a material effect on the assessment findings reported herein