6.1 Overview of the Procurement Process

The procurement process usually includes the following stages:

■ Request for Qualifications (RFQ) which announces the start of the procurement process. The RFQ involves an open call for qualified teams to submit a response. The RFQ process should generally result in the 3 most qualified respondent teams being short listed to participate in the Request for Proposals stage of the procurement.

■ Request for Proposals (RFP) stage is usually limited to the 3 proponent teams selected through the Request for Qualifications phase. The limit is used to allow each proponent team a reasonable chance of success in the procurement while ensuring there is sufficient competition to generate the best value for the GOA.

■ Commercial and Financial Close during which the project documents, including the Project Agreement, are executed and the Preferred Proponent meets all requirements to secure the private financing.

The following chart provides high-level overview of a typical GOA P3 procurement process. The indicative timelines are those for a large, complex P3 project and include Request for Qualifications and Request for Proposals stages. These timelines may be adjusted depending on the nature of the project and the specific details of the procurement process. The timelines do not include issuing a request for expressions of interest (REOI). An REOI may be issued during the P3 assessment and approval stage.

Figure 3: Procurement Process (with indicative timing)

• Hire consultants and advisors	• Announce transaction	• Confidentiality undertaking with shortlisted Proponents	• Receive comments on draft Project Agreement	• Execute Project Agreement	• Commence design-build
• Prepare draft agreement and schedules	• Issue RFQ • Hold information meeting	• Issue RFP	• Issue final Project Agreement	• Financing close	• Prepare for operations and maintenance
• Hire Fairness Auditor	• Open RFQ electronic data room • Receive RFQ submissions	• Open RFP electronic data room • Site access • Receive and evaluate (staged) submissions (Pass/Fail)	• Receive and evaluate final submission, including financial offer		• Contractor delivers project
	• Evaluate submissions	o Concept/ Innovations	Select Preferred Proponent
	• Conduct interviews	o Preliminary technical
	• Shortlist 3 Respondents	o Detailed technical

To ensure a fair and competitive transaction process, the following guidelines are considered in the development and execution of the procurement:

■ All interested parties, respondents and proponents have reasonable access to the opportunity.

■ All interested parties, respondents and proponents have the same opportunity made available to them to access information and that information is sufficient for them to fully understand the opportunity.

■ The criteria established in the procurement documents reflect the needs and objectives in respect of the project.

■ The evaluation criteria and the evaluation process are established prior to the evaluation of submissions.

■ The evaluation criteria, RFQ/RFP, and evaluation processes are internally consistent.