Mr. Speaker, in response to a question asked by Mrs. Marie Jewell on June 22, 1992, concerning policy for tender and proposal calls: Mr. Speaker, contracts are entered into pursuant to the requirements of the Financial Administration Act and the government contract regulations that have been established in accordance with that act.
The two primary processes for entering into contracts are tenders and requests for proposals. With tenders, the exact requirements of the contract are known and are specified to interested parties in advance of the bids being made. The contract is awarded to the party that has tendered the lowest bid. As the lowest bid is the single deciding factor, the value of each bid is announced at the time of the public bid opening.
With requests for proposals, certain requirements cannot be pro-determined and outlined to the interested parties. Instead, a number of published criteria are used to evaluate the bids. Points are awarded in relation to those criteria, and the firm with the most points is awarded the contract. The dollar value of the bid is always one of the criteria. However, as it is only one of a number of criteria, the dollar value is not announced at the time the bids are publicly opened.
Variances from standard government contracting procedures do arise on an occasional basis, and are dealt with in accordance with the directions of the contracting officers from the Departments of Finance, Government Services and Justice. However, both the tender and request for proposal process cannot be used in the same contracting exercise. Once the decision has been made to use one of the two processes, the entire exercise is to be completed using the chosen process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.