East Block rehabilitation project construction management advisory services

Table of contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Attestation of assurance
• 3. Project requirement
• 4. Fairness Monitor engagement and observations
  • 4.1 Request for proposal phase
  • 4.2 Evaluation phase
• 5. Reference documents

1. Introduction

Hallux Consulting Inc. was engaged as a Fairness Monitor (FM) to observe the competitive procurement process for the Construction Management Advisor (CMA) for the East Block Rehabilitation Project, issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), as a result of Solicitation Number EP747-151625/A. Hallux 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 Fairness Monitor, commencing on March 25, 2015 with the review of the initial draft of the Request for Proposal (RFP), continuing through to the consensus meetings held on July 23 and 24, 2015 and a meeting held on August 12 to review the bid adequacy with the successful bidder.

This report includes our attestation of assurance, a summary of the scope and objectives of our assignment, the methodologies applied and relevant observations from the activities undertaken.

2. Attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the East Block Rehabilitation Project for Construction Management Advisor procurement process:  It is our professional opinion that the competitive procurement process we observed was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

3. Project requirement

The rehabilitation of the East Block is part of a master plan laid out in the Long Term Vision and Plan (LTVP). The LTVP is a comprehensive 25 year plan and program of work to rehabilitate the Parliament buildings, provide additional parliamentary accommodations and create a secure and welcoming environment for parliamentarians, staff, visitors and tourists.

The request for proposal was issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to retain the services of a Construction Management Advisor (CMA) for the exterior rehabilitation of the East Block on Parliament Hill.

The selected firm will provide pre-construction advice and minor construction work. The contract will include options for construction management advisory services, minor work construction and constructor services. The Construction Management Advisor will:

• provide advisory services for the entire duration of the project,
• perform the role of Constructor as defined in the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The intent of the Occupational Health and Safety Act is to have one person with overall authority for health and safety matters on a project. This person is the constructor of the project.  Section 1 of the Act defines “constructor” as “a person who undertakes a project for an owner and includes an owner who undertakes all or part of a project by himself or by more than one employer”, and
• provide Construction Management services for Division 1 works which are common to all three construction sub-phases as well as minor works which fall outside the scope of the building envelope rehabilitation. Under the MasterFormat used in North America for construction specifications, Division 1 is used to describe the general conditions required for the project. This includes price and payment procedures, administrative requirements, quality requirements, temporary facilities and controls, facility operation, and facility decommissioning.

The main building envelope rehabilitation work will be undertaken in at least three separate construction sub-phases by separately contracted General Contractors under direct contract with PWGSC. An architectural firm was engaged under contract EP747-141835/A awarded in July 2014 to provide architecture services for the project.

4. Fairness Monitor engagement and observations

Hallux Consulting Inc. was engaged as a Fairness Monitor (FM) to observe the competitive procurement process for the East Block Rehabilitation Project for Construction Management Advisory Services, 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, observed request for proposal related activities identifying fairness-related matters to the appropriate parties, e.g., contracting and technical authorities, and ensuring that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate.

4.1 Request for proposal phase

Key activities during the Request for Proposal phase of the procurement included:

• Reviewing the draft RFP;
• Reviewing the final RFP;
• Observing the optional site visits on May 20, 2015 and June 12, 2015; and
• Reviewing questions posed by potential bidders and the responses provided by the contracting authority via amendments to the RFP.

The tendering procedure was open to all interested suppliers. A one-phase selection process approach with a two envelope evaluation was used for this procurement. The Notice of Proposed Procurement (NPP) was published on buyandsell.gc.ca on April 16, 2015. The RFP had an initial closing date of May 28, 2015 which was extended twice with a final closing date of July 15, 2015. Nine questions were received from potential bidders and responses to the questions were provided by way of the seven amendments issued to the RFP. Three bids were received in response to the RFP.

No fairness issue were noted during the RFP phase.

4.2 Evaluation phase

During the period of July 16 to August 12, 2015, the Fairness Monitor Specialist observed:

• the training provided to the team of four evaluators;
• the distribution of the proposals and the individual evaluator scoring sheets and the signature of the confidentiality and conflict of interest statements;
• the mandatory evaluation sheets for the three bidders.  All of them were deemed compliant;
• the technical evaluation sessions July 23 and 24, 2015, which were undertaken in a consistent fashion and by consensus of all the evaluation board members;
• the validation of the technical evaluation results by the Contracting Authority;
• the calculation of the final scores for the technical rating;
• the opening of the price proposal envelopes;
• the final evaluation spreadsheet which included both the technical and financial scores; and
• a meeting held with the highest rated bidder August 12, 2015 as permitted under the RFP general instructions, to ensure the adequacy of the bid price.

The FM Specialist observed that the evaluation processes and instructions published in the Final RFP, the RFP amendments and the Evaluation Plan and Guidelines were followed during the evaluation phase. Comments were provided by the FM Specialist as required throughout the evaluation process to the Technical Team and the Contracting Authority. All comments were addressed appropriately by project officials.

One of the three bids had to be disqualified because the mandatory requirements were not met. The price proposal envelope from this bidder was not opened.

No fairness issues were noted during the evaluation phase.

5. Reference documents

Documents related to Solicitation Number EP747-151625/A are available on Archived - Construction management advisory services (EP747-151625/A) and/or through the project office.

Table summary

The following table includes a list of documents referred to in the report such as the Request for Proposal (RFP), amendments, clarification letters, debriefing letters, etc. Each row is numbered, followed by the document title, then a document identifier such as a date or document number.

No.	Document	Additional information
1	Request for Proposal	Request for Proposal (RFP) documents published on buyandsell.gc.ca on April 16, 2015.
2	Amendment No. 001	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on April 20, 2015.
3	Amendment No. 002	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on May 04, 2015.
4	Amendment No. 003	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on June 01, 2015.
5	Amendment No. 004	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on June 10, 2015.
6	Amendment No. 005	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 02, 2015.
7	Amendment No. 006	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 06, 2015.
8	Amendment No. 007	Published on buyandsell.gc.ca on July 07, 2015.
9	Evaluation Board Procedures – A guide to the evaluation board July 2015	Distributed to the Technical team at the evaluators’ training meeting held on July 20th.

Addendum to the final report
September 16, 2015

Addendum to the final report dated August 24, 2015 for the competitive procurement process for the construction management advisory services for the east block rehabilitation project undertaken by Public Works and Government Services Canada through request for proposal number EP747‐151625/A

This Addendum to the Final Report covers the period following the conclusion of the evaluation phase including contract award.

The successful bidder was selected and the contract awarded on August 21, 2015. The unsuccessful bidders were advised of the results by letter sent on September 1, 2015. Neither of the two unsuccessful bidders requested a debriefing.

Fairness Monitor attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the Construction Management Advisory Services for the East Block Rehabilitation Project: It is our professional opinion that the competitive procurement process we observed was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.