PARIS, ROME, and VICTORIA, British Columbia — Naval Group and Fincantieri are out of the running to compete in Canada’s program to acquire a fleet of new surface combatants after they failed to submit a bid through the formal process and instead sent a proposal directly to the Canadian government.
The companies had offered Canada a proposal to construct 15 ships at Irving Shipbuilding in Nova Scotia for a fixed cost. But the proposal circumvented the government’s procurement procedure, which required formal bids to be submitted to Irving by Nov. 30. Naval Group and Fincantieri did not follow that requirement.
The Canadian government announced Tuesday it had rejected the proposal from the two firms. “The submission of an unsolicited proposal at the final hour undermines the fair and competitive nature of this procurement suggesting a sole source contracting arrangement,” Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC, which is overseeing the procurement, said in a statement. “Acceptance of such a proposal would break faith with the bidders who invested time and effort to participate in the competitive process, put at risk the Government’s ability to properly equip the Royal Canadian Navy and would establish a harmful precedent for future competitive procurements.”
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