10.3.1 As stated in Section 4, Policy requirements, Contracting authorities are to ensure that:
1. work descriptions or specifications are to be defined in terms that accommodate the use of the competitive process whenever feasible, result in best value in meeting the need and establish, in advance, what is required of the supplier to perform the contract (requests for contracting actions should avoid specifying "sole-source");
2. whenever practical, an equal opportunity to compete exists for all firms and individuals, providing that they have, in the judgement of the contracting authority, the technical, financial and managerial competence to discharge the contract and meet, where appropriate, criteria established by overall national policies and objectives;
3. where not prohibited, under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement and the Agreement on Internal Trade, criteria are to be established to encourage and assess socio-economic factors in relation to the total cost of a contract before bids are solicited, and solicitation documents are to give notice that socio-economic factors are to be used to assess bids when they are received.
Assessment and award criteria must be spelled out in the solicitation document.