ABOUT PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
It’s procurement season! With the new fiscal year beginning on April 1, the Region of Queens Municipality will soon be issuing a number of procurement calls to provide services to the residents, businesses, and guests of Queens County.
Procurement is the process of acquiring goods or services and includes methods such as traditional tenders, pre-qualified tenders, requests for proposals (RFP), requests for quotations (RFQ), standing offer proposals, and two-phase bids.
DID YOU KNOW?
Like all other municipalities in Nova Scotia, Region of Queens Municipality is required to follow a public awarding process – as part of that process, the Region must abide by both the Nova Scotia Public Procurement Act and the Region of Queens’ Operational Policy 26 – Purchasing.
These two pieces of legislation work together to ensure that government and public sector bodies buy goods and services in a manner that is fair, sustainable, transparent, accountable, standardized, and compliant with regional, national, and international trade agreements.
At the Region of Queens, procurement is completed through a multi-step process:
1) Initiation – This is the phase where the good or service is defined, procurement documents are developed by staff with the support of the municipal solicitor, and advertised for vendors to consider.
2) Receipt – In this mandatory phase, sealed submissions are received from prospective suppliers or vendors during a specified time period. Submissions are not permitted to be opened or reviewed by staff until closing but may be withdrawn by the proponent.
3) Closing – Once the submission period closes, packages that have been received from suppliers are opened, reviewed by staff, and evaluated for:
- Compliance with the terms of the bid specifications and documents
- Completeness of submission, errors, or omissions
- Scoring – all procurement submissions are scored on several factors including pricing, quality, and delivery
If submissions are deemed to be non-compliant by staff and/or legal counsel, those submissions are required to be removed from further review and the scoring process.
For agreements that have a profound impact on municipal operations, such as long-term, high-value, or sensitive agreements, staff will present the results to Council and request direction. In this scenario, Council receives and reviews a staff report at a public meeting, asks questions, and then directs staff accordingly to award or not award the contract by motion.
For less impactful agreements, staff determine the recommended proponent under the guidelines set out in the Procurement Policy.
ABOUT NON-COMPLIANT BIDS
Proceeding with or awarding a contract to a non-compliant supplier creates unnecessary financial, legal, and reputational risk to the Municipality. Accepting a submission that does not meet the required criteria can entitle other proponents to legally challenge the process and could result in additional expense to the Municipality, delay the delivery of the service, and jeopardize future procurement efforts.
There are a variety of factors that can result in a submission deemed to be non-compliant; examples include:
– The submission fails to meet the mandatory service requirements outlined in the procurement call. For example, if the Municipality tenders a request for the supply of rubber boots and a vendor proposes providing sandals, that submission would be non-compliant.
– Proposing an alternative solution but failing to ensure it is acceptable. For example, a request for the supply of traffic paint could result in a vendor submitting a proposal to use non-conventional paint made from reclaimed oyster shells without providing clear evidence and backing that this option could be successfully used on roadways.
– Poor performance or non-performance on a past contract by the supplier such as failing to fulfill previous obligations.
If a submitted package is deemed to be non-compliant and a supplier feels an error has been made, the supplier can request feedback from the Municipality on why the bid was deemed non-compliant.
Should the supplier wish to do so, they may file a complaint with the Chief Procurement Officer for the Province of Nova Scotia in accordance with the Nova Scotia Public Procurement Policy.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN MORE?
For more information on the Region of Queens Operating Policy 26 – Purchasing, you can visit www.regionofqueens.com/purchasingpolicy.
To view the Municipality’s active tender/bid calls, please visit https://www.regionofqueens.com/procurement.
To learn more about the Nova Scotia Public Procurement Act, you can visit https://www.novascotia.ca/public-procurement-act-overview.
To view the Nova Scotia Public Procurement Policy, you can visit https://notices.novascotia.ca/files/corporate-admin-policy-manual/300-3-1.pdf.
