Mandatory Requirements (M-Requirements)

Mandatory requirements are the minimum requirements a bid must satisfy to be considered compliant. They are normally evaluated on a pass/fail basis. If a bid fails to meet any one mandatory requirement, it is non-compliant and is excluded from further consideration.

The term is used across public-sector procurement, including Canadian federal procurement and NATO procurement. Related expressions include mandatory technical criteria, mandatory evaluation criteria, minimum requirements, responsive and non-responsive bids, and pass/fail evaluation. Bid teams often shorten the term to M-requirements.

How PSPC defines and applies mandatory requirements

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) states that mandatory requirements identify the minimum requirements for bids to be considered. They are evaluated on a simple pass/fail basis, and a bid that fails any mandatory criterion is non-compliant and receives no further consideration. PSPC sets this out in its guidance on evaluation criteria.

The federal seminar guidance on bidding on opportunities says the same thing in plain terms: bidders must fulfill all mandatory criteria to proceed in the evaluation. Published CanadaBuys solicitations repeat the rule. One federal request for proposals states that mandatory requirements are assessed pass/fail and that proposals failing them are disqualified without further consideration.

Proving compliance with mandatory technical criteria

Meeting a mandatory requirement means showing that you meet it. A CanadaBuys solicitation for economic modelling and analysis requires bidders to provide documentation supporting compliance with the mandatory technical criteria. The standard PSPC bid solicitation template for medium-complexity requirements follows the same approach.

Mandatory criteria are not rated. A strong score elsewhere in a bid does not make up for a failed mandatory requirement, and mandatory criteria are generally not relaxable after bid closing.

Treasury Board limits on mandatory technical criteria

The Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Procurement instructs officials to limit mandatory technical criteria to the requirements that are essential to achieving the desired outcomes. The purpose is to avoid disqualifying bids unnecessarily. For a supplier, this means a mandatory requirement in a federal solicitation is meant to reflect a real minimum need of the buyer, not a preference.

Mandatory requirements in NATO solicitations

NATO solicitation documents use the same logic. They often present mandatory requirements in a requirements matrix. A NATO request for proposals states that compliance with all requirements in its matrix is mandatory and that failure to comply may automatically exclude a bidder from evaluation. Suppliers pursuing both Canadian and NATO work will find the same pass/fail discipline in each.

What mandatory requirements mean for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Treat every mandatory requirement as a gate. Your bid is scored only if it passes all of them. In practice:

• Address every mandatory requirement, with no exceptions.
• Follow the prescribed response format. PSPC advises bidders to address topics in the order of the mandatory requirements and evaluation criteria, under the same headings.
• Submit all required evidence, certifications and supporting documentation before the closing time.
• Read words such as "must," "shall" and "will" as potentially mandatory where the solicitation identifies them as such.
• Do not assume a partial answer or a strength elsewhere will offset a gap. Mandatory criteria are pass/fail.

Build a compliance checklist from the solicitation before drafting begins, and have someone who did not write the response check it against the final bid.