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Effective: September 21, 2005
Responsibility: Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer

• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C - Procurement Process
• Appendix D
• Appendix E
• Appendix F
• Appendix G
• Appendix H
• Appendix I
• Appendix J

APPENDIX C - Procurement Process

1. APPLICATION

In accordance with Policy:

• All purchases of goods or of goods with services in excess of $1,000 are required to be processed through the SMS,.
• All purchases of goods or of goods with services in excess of $5,000 shall use bid solicitation (except for exceptions identified in article 4.9 of section II. Guiding principles of the policy).
• All purchases in excess of $5,000 are supported by a written contract or purchase order.
• Apart from the exceptions stated in article 4.9 of section II. Guiding principles of the policy, competitive offers must be obtained for all procurement values in excess of $50,000 in aggregate.
• Apart from the exceptions stated in articles 4.9 and 4.10 of section II. Guiding principles of the policy, the Corporation shall use open bid solicitation for purchases of goods and services over $500,000 and construction projects over $5 million.

The following table identifies the authorized procurement modes according to the nature and estimated value of the required purchase and the required approvals according to the DFA and DSA policies.

2. EXCEPTIONS AND EXEMPTIONS

Exceptions stated in articles 4.9 and 4.10 of section II. Guiding principles of the policy, shall be documented and the documentation must be kept on file and be available for audit. A copy of this documentation must be sent to SMS with the procurement documents (contract, PO etc).

In the case of an exemption to this policy for any exceptional circumstances where the bid solicitation process would not allow for maximizing savings, it shall be approved by the Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation. The form « Exemption – Justification and Approval » provided in Appendix E shall be used for that. Should the responsible Vice-President disagree with the Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer’s decision with respect to the non-approval of an exemption the case will be brought to the President and Chief Executive Officer for resolution, together with the rationale used by both sides.

All exemption requests must be approved prior to the initiation of any action towards the suppliers. A copy of these exemption requests shall be routed to the SMS for filing, follow-up and control purposes.

All these exception and exemption cases should be periodically reviewed to ensure that opportunities for savings are not being overlooked.

3. GUIDELINES

Procurement of goods and services shall comply with the following process, including interventions of identified Corporate departments.

See: Global procurement process via RFP/RFSO/RFQ

In order to ensure that the procurement process is applied according to this policy, the requestor shall complete the form « Procurement checklist » provided in Appendix D, and attach the form to the contract going for signatures. A copy of the form shall be routed to the SMS for filing, follow-up and control purposes.

4. CONFIDENTIALITY

Any offers provided by suppliers or service providers are to be treated as confidential. Any clarification provided to one supplier must be provided to all other proponents anonymously.

Only essential information is to be divulged to persons other than decision-making personnel in the requestor department.

In case of delays or suspensions of any procurement activity, all suppliers should be notified. Subject to restrictions pertaining to open tendering, unsuccessful suppliers who have submitted written offers must be notified as soon as a final decision is made.

5. BIDS OPENING

The bids received in accordance with a bid solicitation (i.e. by due date, time and with specific markings), are to be opened in the presence of at least two (2) persons witnessing that the container (envelopes, boxes, parcels, etc.) has not been tampered with and that the bid opening process is fair and just. Unless otherwise specified, there shall not be any publication of bids.

Specific factors such as prices, discounts, performance bond, security/guarantee deposit, etc., should be identified for each of the offers opened and listed on a "offer chart/summary" for comparison purposes and for the acceptance/rejection of offers submitted.

The SMS and the requesting department should perform an in-depth evaluation of the submitted/accepted offers.

The people opening the offers should initial the offers received and the sections where the important factors are quoted and sign the completed offers chart/summary report.

The offers opening, the offers chart/summary and the offers evaluation shall be documented and filed.

6. WIDE VARIATIONS BETWEEN OFFERS

When one or more offers show wide variations in price from other competitive offers, and these variations appear to be due to misunderstanding or error, these offers should be reviewed with the suppliers concerned. However, care must be taken not to give an unfair advantage or disadvantage to the other suppliers.

7. SUPPLIER’S OFFER

A purchase order or a contract referring to a supplier’s offer constitutes the acceptance of the supplier’s offer by CBC/Radio-Canada.

Reference to an offer on a CBC/Radio-Canada purchase order becomes part of our purchase contract. Particular care should be taken to ensure that all terms and conditions of the offer meet CBC/Radio-Canada requirements. All differences between the supplier’s offer and the purchase order or the related contract must be detailed with the appropriate references.

8. UNSUCCESSFUL BIDDERS

Subject to restrictions pertaining to open bid solicitation, unsuccessful bidders who have submitted written offers, must be notified in writing at the earliest possible time, that a final decision has been made.

9. OPEN BID SOLICITATION

The process of open bid solicitation shall comply with the following rules:

• The open bid solicitation shall be posted on an electronic tendering system that is equally accessible to all Canadian suppliers, namely the MERX system (www.merx.com)
• The notice of open bid solicitation shall contain at least the following information:

  (a)	A brief description of the procurement contemplated;
  (b)	The place where a person may obtain information and procurement documents;
  (c)	The conditions for obtaining the procurement documents;
  (d)	The place where the offers are to be sent;
  (e)	The date and time limit for submitting offers;

• An open bid solicitation can be limited to goods, services or qualified suppliers only if the related qualification process was carried out through open bid solicitation.
• The open bid solicitation process shall not discriminate:

  (a)	Between the goods or services of a particular Province or region, including those goods and services included in construction contracts, and those of any other Province or region;
  (b)	Between the suppliers of such goods or services of a particular Province or region and those of any other Province or region.

10. GENERAL

When a bid solicitation refers to specifications or sample for a good or service, the supplier’s obligation need only to conform to these specifications or sample.

When drawings, specification sheets and samples are provided to prospective suppliers, it should be:

• Clearly indicated whether they have been approved for fabrication or are only to be used as a guide in preparing quotations;
• Indicated whether they are to be returned with their quotations;
• Clearly stated when a sample or specimen is to be used as a prototype;
• Indicated that these documents should be treated as confidential and state the suppliers’ responsibilities in that matter.

In the absence of a clear design or performance specification, it should be stated what the product/equipment is expected to do.

Once the supplier(s) has(ve) been selected, the requestor shall consult the Law Department before pursuing the negotiations in order to draft the agreement and ensure that appropriate terms and conditions are included.

11. REFERENCE FOR BID SOLICITATION PREPARATION

As reference, the following questions, without being limiting, shall be used as guidelines to define clearly the bid solicitation requirements:

1. Is required quantity defined (number of units, estimated work hours)?
2. Are delivery time constraints and parameters defined?
3. Are quality criteria specified (technical characteristics, performance level, customer support, billing and payment characteristics, etc.)?
4. Are complete drawings and/or specifications and/or statement of work included?
5. Are drawings and/or specifications and/or statement of work marked "for proposals only" and instructions regarding their return included?
6. Are delivery address, closing date/time for offers and method noted? Are there best practices that CBC / Radio-Canada wishes that its suppliers apply?
7. Are there any conditions which may have a special bearing on price such as:

   • Particular materials to be supplied by specific suppliers;
   • Necessity for weekend or off-business hours installation requirements;
   • Special CBC/Radio-Canada licenses or special status resulting in tax or import exemptions?

8. Is any co-ordination required with other bidders or suppliers?
9. Are instructions requesting separate offers based on units or delivery over time included?
10. If applicable, is the supply of spare parts or additional follow-up servicing referred to?
11. Is there need for personnel training or continued technical support?
12. Is the required number of technical manuals, operating manuals, parts lists and wiring diagrams specified?
13. Has the offers evaluation grid been prepared clearly defining the evaluation criteria and corresponding weight? This grid shall be defined internally, prior to receiving the suppliers’ offers but shall not form part of the bid solicitation documents. Evaluation criteria shall include all technical and operating performance requirements.

ADDENDUM TO APPENDIX C
Offers Evaluation - Checklist