North Warning System

Introduction

P1 Consulting Inc. was engaged on November 5, 2020 as a fairness monitor (FM) to observe the procurement process for the North Warning System (NWS) procurement, issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) on behalf of the Department of National Defence as a result of solicitation numbers: W8485-157352/A, W8485-157352/B and W8485-157352/C.

The procurement was conducted in 2 phases. The first was the industry engagement phase comprising of 2 letters of interest and requests for information (RFI) followed by the subsequent request for proposal (RFP) phase.

P1 Consulting Inc. is an independent third party with respect to this activity. We reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities.

We hereby submit the final report, covering the activities of the FM, commencing from the start of our engagement on November 5 2020, continuing through the evaluation consensus meetings to the completion of the evaluation of proposals on October 18, 2021.
This report includes:

• our attestation of assurance
• a summary of the scope and objectives of our assignment
• relevant observations from the activities undertaken

Attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the unqualified assurance statement below that concerns the NWS procurement.

It is our professional opinion that the procurement process which we observed or monitored was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

Original signed by:

Project requirement

The NWS is a radar surveillance system comprising 47 radar sites extending across the Arctic from the Western part of the Yukon to the southern coast of Labrador. It is an essential element in the provision of aerospace surveillance information as a contribution to Canada's sovereignty and Canada’s participation in the North American Aerospace Defence Command with the United States.

The radar sites and their associated equipment and facilities are currently supported from 5 logistics support sites located at: Inuvik, Cambridge Bay, Hall Beach, Iqaluit and Goose Bay. The radar sites are linked by a satellite communications network to the Canadian Air Defence Sector in North Bay, Ontario. The control centre located at the Canadian forces base (CFB) in North Bay, enables the continuous remote monitoring of all sites on a 24/7 basis. The NWS support centre also located at CFB North Bay provides depot level maintenance and logistics for the NWS.

The NWS is a major endeavour and in view of its role in the effectiveness of the North American Air Defence, the system simply cannot be allowed to fail and thus requires the highest degree of maintenance to guarantee operational integrity. The NWS mandatory requirements include preparing and implementing annual maintenance plans, 5-year sustainment plans and corrective maintenance as required in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations; to conduct its operations using International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000 standards to implement risk identification and mitigation processes and procedures and continuously develop and maintain internal quality assurance and quality control procedures. There are additional requirements under the NWS project for work to be called-up on an as-and-when-requested basis. This additional work will be initiated, either by the prime NWS contractor or by Canada when required, to address technology obsolescence, changes required as a result of new legislative requirements and system/component upgrades to ensure the NWS remains fully operational.

It is intended to result in the award of 1 contract for 15 years with transition-in and transition-out periods.

Fairness monitoring engagement and observations

P1 Consulting Inc. was engaged as an FM to observe the NWS procurement, and to attest to the fairness, openness and transparency of this monitored activity.

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we:

• familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents and observed the procurement activities
• identified fairness-related matters to the contracting and technical authorities when applicable
• ensured that responses and actions were reasonable, appropriate and fair
• reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities from our engagement date onwards

To date, in our role as FM, P1 Consulting Inc. observed that the following was implemented throughout the procurement:

• clarity of the procurement documents and processes
• avoidance of conflicts of interests through the implementation of mechanisms
• proper processes related to the protection of the bidders’ confidential information
• application of diligence throughout the procurement and evaluation processes
• adherence to the procurement documents

Request for information W8485-157352/A

RFI W8485-157352/A was issued by PWGSC on June 2, 2020, and closed on June 16, 2020. This RFI was completed prior to our engagement on the project. As part of our engagement, we reviewed the posting on buyandsell.gc.ca to familiarize ourselves with the project.

Request for information W8485-157352/B

The FM observed the procurement process for the NWS RFI W8485-157352/B issued by PWGSC on October 23, 2020. As part of our engagement, the FM undertook the following activities:

• reviewed the already released RFI and associated amendment 1 (issued November 5, 2020), to familiarize ourselves with the project
• reviewed amendment 2 which included the draft RFP (issued December 23, 2020), and amendment 3 (issued January 28, 2021) before their issuance on buyandsell.gc.ca
• monitored the one-on-one meetings with interested stakeholders that took place between November 19 and 27, 2020
• monitored the one-on-one meetings with interested stakeholders to discuss the draft RFP (January 14 to 21, 2021)
• monitored the communications, provided to us by the contracting authority (CA), that occurred between PWGSC and interested stakeholders

Throughout our engagement comments provided by the FM related to fairness were adequately addressed by the CA.

Request for proposal W8485-157352/C

P1 Consulting Inc. observed the procurement process for NWS related to the RFP W8485-157352/C issued by PWGSC.

As part of our engagement, we undertook the below activities.

In this section

• Review of the request for proposal
• Review of evaluation criteria and procedures
• Issuance of the request for proposal
• Review of amendments
• Review of request for proposal closing
• Evaluation kick-off meetings
• Monitoring of request for proposal evaluation of the bids
• Financial assessment and final evaluation results

Review of the request for proposal

The FM reviewed the final RFP from a fairness perspective. Any concerns were adequately addressed by the CA prior to the RFP’s posting on buyandsell.gc.ca.

Review of evaluation criteria and procedures

The FM reviewed the evaluation criteria and procedures for the RFP to ensure that the evaluation would be completed in a manner that was fair, open and transparent.

Issuance of the request for proposal

The RFP was posted publicly on March 31, 2021 on buyandsell.gc.ca.

Review of amendments

There were 20 amendments related to the procurement process issued during the RFP open period. The FM reviewed all amendments from a fairness perspective prior to their posting.

Review of request for proposal closing

P1 Consulting Inc. received confirmation from the CA that no late submissions were received following the closing deadline of July 19, 2021 at 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). A total of 3 bids were received and handled in accordance with the closing requirements and deadline stated in the RFP.

Evaluation kick-off meetings

On June 16, 17 and 22, 2021, the FM attended kick-off meetings with the evaluation team and the CA to review the evaluation process and schedule. The meetings addressed the evaluation guidelines and evaluation handbook, and the technical and Inuit benefits evaluation criteria. All members of the evaluation teams attended these kick-off meetings in preparation for the role in the evaluation. Fairness-related comments were provided, and appropriate action was taken by the CA and evaluation team.

Monitoring of request for proposal evaluation of the bids

The evaluation was subject to the phased bid compliance process which permitted bidders to submit additional information in order to demonstrate compliance with the RFP mandatory requirements. In accordance with phase 1 of the phased bid compliance process, the CA conducted a review of the financial submissions to determine compliance. Of the bids received, 2 were found to be missing certain financial information and the applicable bidders were issued a notice on July 26, 2021 to rectify the issue within the specified remedy period. The FM reviewed the notices and the associated responses from bidders received by July 28, 2021. Fairness-related comments were provided, and appropriate action was taken by the CA and evaluation team.

The FM reviewed the documentation associated with phase 2 of the phased bid compliance process, including the 2 compliance assessment reports (CAR) that documented the areas of non-compliance and the bidders’ 2 subsequent responses, which were provided to the relevant evaluation teams for their evaluation. The CARs were issued to bidders on Aug 19, 2021, and responses received by August 26, 2021. Fairness-related comments were provided, and appropriate action was taken by the CA and evaluation team.

A clarification question related to 1 of the bids was issued on September 17, 2021, and the response was received the same day. The FM reviewed the question prior to issuance along with the received response. Fairness-related comments were provided, and appropriate action was taken by the CA and evaluation team.

During the period from August 30, 2021 to October 14, 2021, the FM monitored the consensus evaluation meetings of mandatory and technical rated criteria. Microsoft Teams was used to conduct the consensus discussions, and to support the fair and secure evaluation of bids, the CA developed and implemented instructions for remote bid evaluations. Following completion of the phased bid compliance process, 1 bid was found to meet the mandatory procedural and technical requirements and was eligible to proceed to evaluation of the rated technical requirements. Overall, the FM observed that the evaluation was conducted in a fair and consistent manner.

Financial assessment and final evaluation results

On October 18, 2021, the FM reviewed the final technical evaluation consensus spreadsheets provided by the CA. The spreadsheets were consistent with the evaluation scoring methodology and process specified in the RFP, and the bidder met the minimum technical threshold required to be identified as the successful bidder. The financial results were reviewed by the CA, and in accordance with the RFP, Inuit benefit, technical and financial scores were combined in accordance with the RFP to determine the final score for the bidder. The FM reviewed the final scores and did not observe any fairness concerns related to that process.

Reference documents

All documents related to the procurement process for the RFIs W8485-157352/A and W8485-157352/B and RFP W8485-157352/C are available on CanadaBuys or through the project office.

Addendum to the final report

April 4, 2022

Addendum to the final report dated December 6, 2021, for the procurement process for the NWS project.

This addendum to the final report covers the period following the conclusion of the evaluation phase including contract award and debriefings.

On December 13, 2021 we received notice that the contract approval for successful bidder was approved, and we reviewed the draft regret letters of the contract award. A summary of the technical bid evaluation was included with each letter. On January 31, 2022, the letters to the unsuccessful bidders were issued by email.

All bidders were provided the opportunity to attend a debriefing. 2 bidders requested debrief meetings. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the debrief meetings were conducted by teleconference. The FM attended the requested debriefings meetings with the bidders. The debriefings were carried out by the CA and the client authority. No issues or comments were made by any bidder which impacted our attestation as the fairness monitor for this project that the procurement was conducted in an open fair and transparent manner.

Attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the unqualified assurance statement below that concerns the NWS project procurement.

It is our professional opinion that the procurement process that we observed or monitored was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

Original signed by: