Mandatory Site Visit or Pre-Bid Meeting

A mandatory site visit is a solicitation requirement under which the bidder, or its representative, must attend an organized visit to the work site before submitting a bid. Only bidders that attend are eligible to submit an offer. Where the solicitation says so, proof of attendance must accompany the bid.

A pre-bid meeting, also called a bidders' conference, is a meeting held before bid submission to answer bidders' questions and clarify the solicitation. It is often held in conjunction with a site visit. In Canadian procurement, both are most common in construction, maintenance, infrastructure, facilities and other work performed at an existing site.

How a mandatory site visit works in a solicitation

The requirement is specific to each solicitation. A site visit can be optional or mandatory, and the solicitation document controls the consequences of not attending. Shared Services Canada's standard instructions state that the solicitation identifies whether the site visit is optional or mandatory. Where it is optional, attendance is a choice. Where it is mandatory, only bidders that attend are eligible to submit a bid. See the SSC standard instructions for procurement documents.

Pre-bid meetings and bidders' conferences

A pre-bid meeting gives the contracting authority a single occasion to answer questions and clarify the solicitation for all attending bidders. It is frequently paired with the site visit, so bidders can walk the site and raise questions in the same session. The purpose is to help bidders prepare offers based on accurate information about the work and the conditions in which it will be done.

How Canadian departments apply the requirement

CanadaBuys tender notices use mandatory site visits for facility and infrastructure work. One CanadaBuys tender notice requires attendance at one of the designated site visits and requires an attendance form to be signed. It states that non-compliant tenders will be considered non-responsive. An example invitation to tender goes further: the bidder's representative must sign the site-visit attendance sheet, and bids from bidders who did not sign it will be rejected.

Defence solicitations hosted on CanadaBuys follow the same structure. One request for proposal requires the bidder or its representative to visit the work site and sets out the scheduled location and time.

The label alone does not tell you the effect. A Fisheries and Oceans Canada solicitation required bidders to attend an on-site meeting but expressly stated that bidders who did not participate would not be precluded from submitting a bid. Read each solicitation to learn whether attendance is a condition of eligibility.

What NATO's Procurement Manual requires

NATO's approach shows the reasoning behind the requirement. Its Procurement Manual states that site visits are intended to help bidders verify the site conditions and assumptions needed to prepare their offers. NATO normally organizes the visit together with a bidders' conference to answer questions about discrepancies between the solicitation and the site findings.

• The solicitation must identify the dates of mandatory visits and how bidder participation will be confirmed.
• Where a visit is mandatory and an attendance certificate is issued, the certificate must be included with the offer for the offer to be eligible.

What it means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Treat the site visit as a pre-closing deliverable, not an optional extra. The Government of Canada's guidance on preparing a bid tells suppliers to look for items due before the closing date, including site visits and bidders' conferences.

• Check the solicitation early to confirm whether the visit is optional or mandatory.
• Note the dates, times and location, and confirm whether one session or several are offered.
• Send a representative who can sign the attendance form or sheet, and keep a copy.
• Include any proof of attendance the solicitation requires with your bid.

A missed mandatory visit usually cannot be fixed after the fact. Depending on the solicitation wording, the bid is ineligible, non-responsive or rejected.