Clarification – Supplier Selection under the THS Standing Offer (April 2010)

As a result of concerns from both Federal Department Users and Industry the following clarification is provided to the below question:

How many Suppliers can be invited to submit resumes at one time using the THS Standing Offer?

THS Federal Department Users can invite as many suppliers as they deem necessary to meet their requirement(s)

When using the Standing Offer for THS, a search MUST be conducted in the THS On-Line System. The Search Result Sheet (which must be printed and added to your file) lists all qualified Suppliers from lowest hourly rate to highest hourly rate. These Standing Offer rates are firm and they are not to be negotiated. The selection of the successful Supplier must be based on the "Right of first refusal", which means that resumés received must be validated in an ascending order, beginning with the supplier with the lowest rate. Should a proposed THS resource(s) not meet all the mandatory requirements, a brief justification must be placed on file to explain why the THS resource(s) did not meet the requirement.  The validation of the resumé(s) is to continue down the list of suppliers until a qualified THS resource that meets all the requirements is identified.

You CANNOT do random selection of Suppliers within the Standing Offer search result list.  The first Supplier to meet ALL the mandatory criteria as outlined in your THS requirement and with the lowest hourly rate MUST be awarded the call-up for that particular THS requirement.