Project management support services for the Supreme Court of Canada building rehabilitation

Table of contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Project requirement
• 3. Attestation of assurance
• 4. Methodology
• 5. Fairness monitor activities and observations
  • 5.1. Procurement planning/pre-issue stage
• 6. Reference documents

1. Introduction

RFPSolutions Inc. was engaged as a Fairness Monitor to observe the competitive procurement process for Real Property Project Management Services for the Supreme Court of Canada Rehabilitation Program. The Request for Proposal (RFP) was to have been issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) under Solicitation Number EH900-141461, but was cancelled prior to issuance. RFPSolutions Inc. was engaged on August 27, 2013.

RFPSolutions Inc. is an independent third party with respect to this activity.

The procurement process was put on hold in March 2014 and cancelled in May 2015. At the time of cancellation, the RFP had not been issued and there had been no interactions with the public or potential suppliers with respect to the procurement process.

We hereby submit this Final Report, covering the activities of the Fairness Monitor in respect of the RFP.

The 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 to date.

2. Project requirement

The Supreme Court of Canada Building and the West Memorial Building are heritage buildings located respectively at 301 Wellington Street and 344 Wellington Street in Ottawa. The Supreme Court of Canada Rehabilitation Program includes the rehabilitation of both buildings as well as ancillary areas such as the parking garage, escarpment, Cliff Street Park and the Memorial Arch. For both buildings, the program is comprised of the removal of existing building systems, building envelope conservation, structural and seismic upgrades, mechanical, electrical, BCC, information technology upgrade, security, life safety modernization, heritage conservation, as well as building interior refurbishment.

PWGSC required a Project Management Support Services (PMSS) Team to assist with the management of planning, design, and implementation of the work related to rehabilitation of the buildings located at 301 and 344 Wellington Street, the Supreme Court of Canada Building and the West Memorial Building, including the Memorial Arch, from Project Identification Stage to the end of the Project Delivery Stage of the PWGSC National Project Management System (NPMS).

PWGSC required that the PMSS team be composed of resources meeting the requirements of the Task and Solutions Professional Services Supply Arrangement (PWGSC file no. e60zn-090002/b). The following resources were requested:

• Project leader for Real Property level 3 - one (1) required
• Senior project managers for Real Property level 3 - two (2) required
• Intermediate project manager for Real Property level 2 - One (1) required
• Junior project manager for Real Property level 1 - one (1) required
• Project administrator for Real Property - one (1) required
• Project planner for Real Property level 3 - one (1) required
• Financial/cost specialist for Real Property level 3 - one (1) required

3. Attestation of assurance

The Fairness Monitor hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the competitive procurement process for Real Property Project Management Services for the Supreme Court of Canada Rehabilitation Program.

The competitive procurement process for the Real Property Project Management Services for the Supreme Court of Canada Rehabilitation Program was cancelled prior to the issuance of a RFP or any interactions with the general public or potential suppliers.

It is our professional opinion that the procurement activities associated with the Real Property Project Management Services for the Supreme Court of Canada Rehabilitation Program we observed, were carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

4. Methodology

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents and observed the pre-solicitation periods, identifying fairness-related matters to the Contracting Authority and verified that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate. Section 5 of this report identifies the specific activities and observations of the Fairness Monitor in respect of those activities.

5. Fairness monitor activities and observations

5.1 Procurement planning/pre-issue stage

RFPSolutions Inc. was engaged to commence Fairness Monitoring activities beginning with the development of the RFP. A review of two (2) drafts of RFP documentation was conducted. This included a review of the:

• General information;
• Bidder instructions;
• Bid preparation instructions;
• Evaluation procedures and basis of selection;
• Certifications;
• Security and insurance requirements; and
• Resulting contract clauses.

The Fairness Monitor provided assurance as to the neutrality of the requirements, the objectivity of evaluation criteria and process; and the clarity of the documentation to support understandability by Proponents in preparing their Proposals, as well as to mitigate the potential for inconsistency or errors in the eventual application of evaluation criteria by the Evaluation Committee.

Observations

During the planning and pre-solicitation phase, no fairness issues were observed.

The RFP was put on hold in March 2014 and subsequently cancelled in May 2015. During this period, no actions were taken with regard to the process.

6. Reference documents

The following documents are referenced by number in this report and unless otherwise indicated, are available through PWGSC.

No.	Document	Document date/number
1	Request for Proposal –Real Property Project Management Services for the Supreme Court of Canada Rehabilitation Program (eh900-141461/a)	Not dated – Cancelled prior to issuance.