Rejection of bids/offers/arrangements

Rejection of bids, offers and arrangements is the step in Canadian federal procurement where Canada declines a submission instead of evaluating it further or accepting it. A bid answers a competitive solicitation such as an invitation to tender or a request for proposals. An offer is submitted for a standing offer. An arrangement is a supply arrangement, and bids can also be submitted under one.

Rejection happens when a submission is non-compliant, when the supplier, its employees or its subcontractors are ineligible, or when another circumstance named in the solicitation or applicable policy applies. Canada also reserves the right to reject any or all bids received, as set out in the standard instructions for competitive requirements.

Non-responsive bids under the Treasury Board Contracting Policy

The most common route to rejection is failing a mandatory requirement. The Treasury Board Contracting Policy states that a bid or proposal that does not meet all mandatory requirements in the request for proposals or other solicitation documents is non-responsive and will be rejected. A non-responsive submission can be set aside without further evaluation against the mandatory requirements.

This makes the mandatory criteria in each solicitation the first screen. A bid that is strong on price or technical merit still fails if it misses a single mandatory item.

Rejection grounds in the standard instructions

Federal departments build standard procurement instructions into their solicitations. The competitive-requirements instructions published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada show the typical grounds. Canada may reject a bid when:

• it chooses to reject any or all bids received;
• the bidder is subject to a vendor performance corrective measure that makes it ineligible;
• an employee or subcontractor named in the bid is subject to a corrective measure that makes that person ineligible for the requirement or the relevant work;
• the bidder is bankrupt or effectively inoperable;
• there is satisfactory evidence of fraud, bribery, fraudulent misrepresentation, violations of discrimination law or improper conduct; or
• the bidder's past performance is sufficiently poor to jeopardize successful completion of the requirement.

The same types of grounds appear in the department's instructions for non-competitive requirements.

Vendor performance corrective measures and rejection

The Vendor Performance Corrective Measure Policy applies rejection across several procurement vehicles. Under it, offers on competitive procurements for goods or services are rejected when the policy applies. So are offers for standing offers. The policy also covers supply arrangements, and bids for contracts under supply arrangements where the designated official of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is the contract authority.

Supply arrangements: suspension and cancellation

PSPC publishes task-based and solution-based supply arrangements. Their conditions allow Canada to suspend or cancel an arrangement where, among other things, the supplier is in default of its obligations or violates the Code of Conduct for Procurement. The conditions are set out in the solution-based and task-based supply arrangement pages.

Rejection is a separate matter from bid-rigging. The Competition Bureau describes bid-rigging as an agreement or arrangement among bidders to submit agreed bids, refrain from bidding or withdraw a bid already submitted.

What rejection means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Treat every mandatory requirement as pass or fail, and submit a complete, compliant bid, offer or arrangement by the stated deadline. Confirm that every proposed employee and subcontractor is eligible, and check whether any corrective measure applies to your firm or your team before you commit to a bid.

Read each solicitation closely, because its stated rejection grounds and the rights Canada reserves govern that procurement. Keep your performance record clean, since poor past performance and corrective measures are both named grounds for rejection.