1000173779 Indian Act election appeal field investigations

RFSO NUMBER: 1000173779

SW1 PROJECT TITLE: ­­­­­­­­­­­Indian Act Election Appeal Field Investigation – Request for Standing Offer Agreements

DIANDS intends to award up to two (2) SOAs. The period of the standing offer is from award until March 31, 2018 with two (2) additional one (1) year option periods.

SW2 OBJECTIVE

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada – Treaties and Aboriginal Government Sector (AANDC-TAG) requires the services of private investigators to collect facts confirm or invalidate allegations made with respect to the electoral appeal process established by the Indian Act. Firms and/or individuals are required to conduct investigative tasks in order to obtain information to substantiate allegations made as described below.

SW3 BACKGROUND
Governance, Policy and Implementation Directorate, within Treaties and Aboriginal Government Sector, is responsible for the application of sections 74 to 79 of the Indian Act.
In light of this mandate, Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada has a legal obligation to receive and process all appeals regarding elections held under the election provisions in the Indian Act.
Each year, an average of 125 First Nations (Indian bands) hold elections according to the procedures proscribed in the Indian Act. Of these an average of one third (approximately 40) are appealed as allowed under the Act and the accompanying regulations.
In a majority of cases, these appeals can be determined based on materials obtained through the initial information-gathering steps under the current legislative regime. However, where the information gathered is insufficient to draw conclusions, the Minister may, under section 13(1) of the Indian Band Election Regulations, engage a private investigator to obtain the necessary information to make an informed decision on allegations brought up in the appeal.
While estimates of cases requiring private investigator work will depend on the number of valid appeals received on an annual basis, a current estimate indicates that the Treaties and Aboriginal Government Sector, on behalf of the Minister may require between 5 and 10 private investigators nationally per year.
Although it is not possible to directly correlate the number of valid appeals to the different regions across Canada, below is the number of Indian bands per region, that hold their elections under the Indian Act. All these Indian bands will go to the polls at least once every two years. Every election has a potential for an appeal and each appeal can, in turn, necessitate a field investigation process.

Region

Number of Indian Bands

British Columbia

72

Alberta and North (NWT, Yukon & Nunavut)

8

Saskatchewan

25

Manitoba

35

Ontario and Quebec

68

Atlantic (PEI, NS, NB and NFLD)

24

Total 232

SW4 TASKS AND ACTIVITIES
The tasks and activities to be performed by the Contractor in support of AANDC-TAG requirements are as follows:

4.1 Obtain, from interviews or meetings, pertinent information with respect to allegations made in the context of election appeals lodged with the Department;

4.2 Conduct investigations, reconcile facts and scrutinize materials obtained from the Department or from other reliable and acceptable sources;

4.3 Write reports in which all election appeal allegations are closely reviewed and assessed. In doing so, the Contractor, brings the necessary information for the Minister to make a decision on an election appeal.

SW5 DELIVERABLES

The main deliverables of this assignment include, but are not limited to, the following:

5.1 Inform AANDC-TAG by e-mail (or by any acceptable means) within a reasonable timeframe of the selected investigation approach;

5.2 Provision of services as set out in the above paragraphs 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3;

5.3 Submit a detailed written report of all the investigation process, including all proven allegations and facts within 10 days of the end of the interview phase;

5.4 Submit a written report, including all original notes, of all attempts, successful or not, to contact persons mentioned in the election appeal file (including date, time and coordinates of the said person);

5.5 Complete for all witnesses interviewed a Credibility Assessment Evaluation on the form prescribed by the Department.

5.6 Deposit all documents obtained in the course of the investigation process with AANDC-TAG, including the witness waiver form, and return all documents provided to the Contractor by AANDC-TAG to assist the Contractor in completing the contract;

5.7 If further investigation is required in a file completed by the contractor, the contractor will be asked to complete the requested further work and prepare a supplementary report.

5.8 The contractor may be required to provide by phone or by email additional details or answering clarification questions following the submission of the report (at no extra cost, up to a maximum of 4 hours of work).

5.9 If the address or E-Mail of the Contractor changes at any time over the term of the Standing Offer Agreement the Contractor must immediately provide AANDC-TAG with the new information.

SW6 CONSTRAINTS

6.1 The work under the resulting SOA must be completed within strict timelines.

6.2 The Contractor may be required to conduct work outside of normal operating hours in order to meet deadlines.

SW8 LOCATION OF WORK AND TRAVEL

The location of work will be specified in any resulting call-up. The proposed resources may be required to travel in any of the following designated regions to various First Nation communities:

British Columbia

Alberta and the North (Northwest Territories, Yukon & Nunavut)

Saskatchewan

Manitoba

Ontario

Quebec

Atlantic (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland)

SW9 LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT

The language of communications with DIAND-TAG is in English, except for the Quebec region where the language of communication may also be in French. The Proposed Resource must be able to work, communicate effectively and efficiently in English (reading, oral and in writing) in all regions excluding Quebec where the proposed resource must be able to work, communicate effectively and efficiently (reading, oral and in writing) in both English and French.

SW10 Resource Addition

AANDC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to perform a refreshment of the SOAs on the first and second option years of the SOA.

The opportunity to name additional qualified resources to the SOAs will be distributed by DIAND in writing to all SOA holders. Qualified Contractors will have the opportunity to submit a maximum of three (3) names and CVs of new resources capable of providing service to AANDC on an as-and-when-required basis.

AANDC will evaluate the CVs of each of the resources named by the Contractor on the basis of the mandatory criterion set out in the RFSO.

The Contractor’s rates provided for any additional qualified named resources shall be in accordance with the provisions of the SOA, and shall not exceed the Contractor’s all-inclusive firm per diem rate for its resources under its SOA. Failure to comply with this condition will result in AANDC’s rejection of any qualified named resource named at a higher rate.

Period of the Standing Offer

The period for making call-ups against the Standing Offer will be from the date of the award of the Standing Offer Agreement award until March 31, 2018.

If the Standing Offer is authorized for use beyond the initial period, the Offeror offers to extend its offer for an additional two (2) period of one (1) year under the same conditions and at the rates or prices specified in the Standing Offer.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS:

M1 Each of the proposed resource(s) MUST be in compliance with their provincial licensing statutes and MUST provide a minimum of one (1) valid investigator license.

M2 Each of the proposed resource(s) MUST have at least two (2) years within the last five (5) years of work experience related to private investigations or a related field such as but not limited to: police work, investigations in another capacity such as fiscal and/or financial audit and witness interviews.

Curriculum vitae for each of the resource(s) proposed resource(s) MUST be provided with the proposal

M3 Each of the proposed resource(s) MUST have experience providing investigator services and must include three (3) examples of projects done within the last five (5) years.

For each of the projects, the Bidder MUST provide the following:

The name of the client organization for whom the work was performed.

The dollar-value of the contract (to the Bidder).

The name of the contact information of the Project Authority to whom the Bidder reported with correct and up to date telephone number, fax number and email address.

The extent to which the private investigation services were provided on time, on budget and in direct response to the established project objective.

DIAND reserves the right to contact the named client project authorities to verify the information provided within the projects.

The SOAs will be awarded based on a determination of Best Value taking into account both the technical merit of the Proposals and the Financial Evaluation.

The Bidder(s) will be selected on the basis of the highest combined rating of technical merit and price:

Security: Pursuant to the Government of Canada Security Policy, the nature of the services to be provided under the Standing Offer Agreement requires a Government of Canada Security Clearance.

"The requirement is subject to the provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)."