Mandatory Requirement (M)

A mandatory requirement is a minimum requirement that a bid must satisfy to be considered responsive and to proceed in the evaluation. In Canadian federal procurement it appears in solicitation and bid-evaluation documents, including requests for proposals, requests for standing offers, supply arrangements and professional-services procurements. Evaluation tables commonly mark these items with the letter M.

Mandatory criteria are normally assessed on a pass/fail basis. Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) explains in its evaluation-criteria guidance that mandatory requirements identify, at the outset, the minimum requirements for bids to be considered. A bid that does not meet one of them does not move on to the later stages of evaluation.

How mandatory criteria differ from rated criteria

Canadian guidance separates two kinds of evaluation criteria. Mandatory criteria set the essential minimum conditions. Rated, or point-rated, criteria are used to differentiate between bids that are already compliant. A mandatory criterion is answered with a yes or a no, while a rated criterion earns a score.

The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman describes mandatory evaluation criteria as the minimum requirements essential to the successful completion of the work. The Government of Canada's bidding guidance states that bidders must fulfill all mandatory criteria to move forward in the evaluation process, and that these criteria are evaluated objectively on a pass/fail basis.

Where mandatory requirements appear in solicitations

Mandatory requirements are not limited to one document type. PSPC professional-services solicitations require a responsive bid to comply with the RFP, meet the minimum mandatory criteria for the applicable category and satisfy any additional mandatory technical criteria identified in the solicitation. The PSPC method-of-supply document sets this out for professional services.

They can also appear in solicitations that establish standing offers or supply arrangements, and in the resulting contract clauses. PSPC provides templates for these instruments, such as its request for standing offer template.

Rules governing how mandatory requirements are written

The Government sets limits on how contracting authorities use mandatory criteria. The Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Procurement says mandatory technical criteria should be limited to requirements considered essential to achieving the desired outcome, so that bids are not unnecessarily disqualified.

The Procurement Ombudsman adds further expectations in its review of evaluation criteria:

• Mandatory criteria must be clearly specified in the solicitation.
• They must be expressed in definitive terms such as "must" or "shall".
• They must represent genuinely essential requirements.

Consequences of failing a mandatory requirement

The Procurement Ombudsman's 2023 review states that failing to meet a mandatory requirement must result in disqualification of the bid. A mandatory requirement cannot be waived after bids are submitted when a compliant bid fails one. A bid that does not demonstrate compliance is generally non-responsive and is not advanced to later evaluation stages.

What it means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Treat every item marked M as a gate. Provide each piece of evidence requested for each mandatory criterion, in the format and by the deadline specified in the solicitation. Build a compliance checklist from the evaluation table before drafting begins, and confirm that each response uses the exact terms of the requirement. Strong scores on rated criteria do not make up for a failed mandatory item, so check the mandatory items first and last.