CONNORS BASICS OFFICE PRODUCTS LTD.

Determinations

CONNORS BASICS OFFICE PRODUCTS LTD.
File No. PR-2005-008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BY FACSIMILE

June 8, 2005

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Re:

Connors Basics Office Products Ltd. (File No. PR-2005-008)

I acknowledge receipt on June 6, 2005, of your complaint dated May 27, 2005, on behalf of Connors Basics Office Products Ltd. This is to inform you that the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (Presiding Member: Patricia M. Close) has reviewed the submission received on June 6, 2005, from Connors Basics Office Products Ltd. (Connors) and relating to a Nova Scotia Regional Standing Offer for office supplies. The Tribunal has decided not to initiate an inquiry into this complaint.

In order for a complaint to be timely, it must be filed within the timeframe set out in section 6 of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Procurement Inquiry Regulations (Regulations). Pursuant to subsection 6(1) of the Regulations, a complaint must be filed with the Tribunal “not later than 10 working days after the day on which the basis of the complaint became known or reasonably should have become known to the potential supplier.” In the event that a supplier objects to the contracting agency, subsection 6(2) of the Regulations states that.

“A potential supplier who has made an objection regarding a procurement relating to a designated contract to the relevant government institution, and is denied relief by that government institution, may file a complaint with the Tribunal within 10 working days after the day on which the potential supplier has actual or constructive knowledge of the denial of relief, if the objection was made within 10 working days after the day on which its basis became known or reasonably should have become known to the potential supplier.”

According to the covering letter of your submission received on June 6, 2005, you were informed by the Department of Public Works and Government Services (PWGSC) that your offer had been declined in February 2005. According to the second-last bullet of that covering letter, PWGSC Halifax informed you that it could not change the decision and advised that you should apply to the Tribunal.

In the Tribunal’s view, given the lack of precise dates contained in the complaint, the latest date upon which Connors had constructive knowledge of the denial of relief is March 31, 2005, when PWGSC Halifax informed you that it was not able to change the initial February 2005 decision to decline your offer. This assumes that you made a proper objection to PWGSC within ten days of being informed that your offer had been declined.

In the Tribunal’s opinion, in order to be considered timely, a complaint would have had to be filed with the Tribunal within 10 working days of March 31, 2005. As your complaint was filed with the Tribunal on June 6, 2005, the Tribunal finds that it was not filed within the required time limits established by subsection 6(2) of the Regulations.

In light of the foregoing, the Tribunal will not conduct an inquiry into this complaint and considers the matter closed.

If there is additional information that was not included with the complaint that you feel may shed new light on the circumstances surrounding this solicitation, you may wish to submit another complaint to the Tribunal and request that information contained in the current complaint be incorporated into that file. To assist you, please have a look at the Tribunal’s Procurement Review Guide, which provides an overview of the procurement review process. It can be found at http://www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/publicat/guide2004_e.asp. The Tribunal’s Web site also includes a template complaint form, which may aid you in ensuring that the Tribunal is provided with all necessary information. It can be found at http://www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/procure/complaint/eform_e.asp.

Yours sincerely,

Hélène Nadeau
Secretary