Contaminated site characterization British Columbia and Yukon Territory

Attestation of Assurance

The fairness monitor (FM) hereby provides the unqualified assurance statement below concerning the Contaminated Site Characterization British Columbia (BC) and Yukon Territory (YT) Contract with Task Authorizations (CTA) procurement process up to and including the conclusion of the request for proposal (RFP) phase.

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

Original signed by:

Project Requirement

P1 Consulting Inc. was engaged on August 25, 2022, as a FM to observe the procurement process for the Contaminated Site Characterization BC and YT CTA issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), on behalf of the Environmental Services and Contaminated Sites Management Branch of PWGSC under solicitation number WS3719279727. P1 Consulting Inc. is an independent third party with respect to this activity.

PWGSC has a requirement to establish up to 5 competitive CTA to provide contaminated sites characterization services. The period of the CTA will be 3 years from contract award. Services are to be performed in BC and the YT on federal sites or adjacent offsite properties using:

• federal, provincial, and territorial methods
• standards
• guidelines
• protocols
• procedures
• Services will include:
• program management
• project management
• field work
• reporting
• technical services

We hereby submit the final report, covering the activities of the FM, commencing from the start of our engagement continuing to the completion of the evaluation of proposals on March 15, 2023.

We reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities as described herein.

This report includes:

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

Fairness monitoring engagement and observations

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we:

• familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents
• observed the RFP activities
• identifying 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
• observed all relevant activities from our engagement date onwards

As part of our engagement, we have undertaken the following.

In this section

• Review of the request for proposal
• Review of evaluation criteria and procedures
• Bidder interaction
• Review of amendments
• Review of request for proposal closing
• Evaluation guideline meeting
• Monitoring of evaluation of the bids
• Financial evaluation and final ranking

Review of the request for proposal

The FM reviewed the draft RFP from a fairness perspective upon its receipt on September 22, 2022. Any concerns were adequately addressed by the contracting authority (CA) prior to public posting on January 2, 2023.

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
• transparent

Bidder interaction

The FM reviewed attended and monitored the optional virtual bidders' conference held on January 19, 2023.

Review of amendments

There were 4 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 received confirmation from the CA that no late submissions were received following the closing deadline of February 15, 2023 at 2:00 pm Eastern standard time. The CA provided confirmation that there were 8 bids received and handled in accordance with the closing requirements and deadline as stated in the RFP.

Evaluation guideline meeting

On February 14, 2023, the FM attended an evaluation guideline meeting with the evaluation team and CA to review the:

• evaluation requirements
• process
• schedule

Prior to undertaking the evaluation, all members of the evaluation team signed off on confidentiality and conflict-of-interest declaration. Fairness-related comments were provided, and appropriate action was taken by the CA and evaluation team.

Monitoring of evaluation of the bids

The technical evaluation began with each evaluator undertaking their individual evaluation of the mandatory and rated criteria for each of the 8 bids. Clarifications were issued to 1 of the bidders, and the clarification along with the response was reviewed by the FM after receipt by the CA. The technical consensus meetings took place on March 14, 2023 and were attended by the FM. As an outcome of the technical evaluation, 7 of the 8 bids met the minimum technical threshold as established within the RFP to proceed to financial evaluation. One bid did not meet this threshold and did not receive further consideration. On March 15, 2023 the CA provided the final consensus spreadsheet containing the technical evaluation results which was reviewed by the FM. The FM observed that the technical evaluation was conducted in a fair and consistent manner.

Financial evaluation and final ranking

The CA completed the financial evaluation and final ranking of the 7 bids in accordance with the RFP and provided the spreadsheet for FM review on March 16, 2023. The FM reviewed the financial evaluation and final rankings, which were observed to be consistent with the RFP. In reviewing these results, the FM did not observe any fairness concerns.

Reference documents

Documents related to the solicitation number WS3719279727 are available on CanadaBuys or through the project office.

Addendum to the final report

August 11, 2023

Addendum to the final report dated June 27, 2023, for the Contaminated Site Characterization BC and YT CTA procurement process.

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

On June 8, 2023, the FM reviewed the award letters which were subsequently sent to the successful bidders. On June 12, 2023 we reviewed the regret letters which were subsequently sent to unsuccessful bidders. The bidders’ evaluation scores were included with each letter. The FM found the letters to be acceptable from a fairness perspective.

Debriefing meetings were held with 7 bidders which were conducted virtually between June 23, 2023 and June 30, 2023. The meetings were carried out by the CA and the client authority with the FM in attendance. There were no issues raised by any bidder which impacted our attestation as the FM 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 concerning the Contaminated Site Characterization BC and YT CTA procurement process up to and including the conclusion of contract award and debriefing activities.

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: