Procurement Ombudsman Investigation

A Procurement Ombudsman investigation is a formal review of a supplier's complaint about how certain federal contracts were awarded or administered. The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman (OPO), a neutral and independent Government of Canada organization, carries it out. Its 2020-21 annual report states that the Ombudsman can investigate formal supplier complaints about the award and administration of certain federal contracts.

The Ombudsman examines whether the procurement followed the applicable rules and then issues a report with findings and, where warranted, recommendations. The legal basis is the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act and the Procurement Ombudsman Regulations. In the regulations and in OPO reports, the formal step is usually called a review or a review of a complaint, and "investigation" is the everyday word for it. The mechanism is federal, so it applies to federal departments and organizations within the Ombudsman's jurisdiction.

How a complaint review differs from a practice review

The Ombudsman has two related functions. The first is reviewing supplier complaints about particular contract awards. The second is reviewing federal procurement practices for fairness, openness and transparency, including possible systemic issues. The 2021-22 annual report describes both.

A complaint review starts with one supplier and one contract. A procurement practice review looks at the practices of one or more federal organizations and may end in recommendations to the relevant department. A supplier cannot file a practice review. A supplier can only file a complaint about a specific procurement.

Filing requirements for a supplier complaint

The OPO sets out several conditions for a complaint. A supplier generally has to:

• be a Canadian supplier;
• submit the complaint in writing;
• identify the facts and grounds for the complaint;
• file within the prescribed time limit; and
• meet the remaining criteria in the Procurement Ombudsman Regulations, including jurisdictional and procedural requirements.

The OPO identifies the normal filing deadline as 30 working days after public notice of the contract award. If there was no public notice, the 30 working days run from when the supplier learned of the award or reasonably should have learned of it. These points are set out in the OPO's 2020-21 report.

When the Ombudsman must launch a review

The OPO assesses each complaint against the criteria in the legislation and regulations. According to the 2022-23 annual report, the Ombudsman must launch a review when a complaint meets those criteria. When the criteria are not met, the Ombudsman may not launch one.

Once a review is launched, it ends in a report. As the 2015-16 report on investigations shows, the report contains findings and, where warranted, recommendations. The Ombudsman reports on what the review found. The Ombudsman does not simply rule for or against the supplier.

Contract types and value thresholds in past reviews

Complaints can concern the award of a federal contract, the administration of a federal contract, or a process such as a request for proposals (RFP). One example in the 2011-12 report on investigations involved an RFP and the resulting services contract. The supplier alleged that mandatory and rated evaluation criteria unfairly limited bidding opportunities.

In earlier regulatory frameworks, the OPO's jurisdiction covered contracts below set values, such as goods below $25,000 and services below $100,000, as described in that same 2011-12 report. Thresholds and governing provisions can change. Check the current regulatory criteria before relying on those historical amounts.

What this means for your bids

If you bid on federal work and believe an award or a contract's administration was handled unfairly, the Procurement Ombudsman gives you a formal route to raise it. Keep the 30 working day clock in view from the moment an award notice is published. Prepare a written complaint that states the facts and the grounds, and confirm that your situation meets the Procurement Ombudsman Regulations before you file. Evaluation criteria that unfairly restrict bidding have been the subject of past reviews, so keep your questions and correspondence on mandatory and rated criteria on record during the bid. The Ombudsman's annual reports and news releases, including the release of the 2020-21 annual report, show the kinds of matters the office handles.