Why does the Treasury Board Secretariat treat Advance Contract Award Notices (ACANs) as competitive?
• Government Policy has always stated that Advance Contract Award Notices are competitive. • They are not an invisible transaction known only to the two parties involved with no other opportunity for any other supplier to be considered. For example the United States defines sole-source acquisitions as a “…contract for the purchase of supplies or services that is entered into or proposed to be entered into by an agency after soliciting and negotiating with only one source.” Advance Contract Award Notices are different from non-competitive contracts in a number of ways: • ACANs allow suppliers with an opportunity to signal their interest in bidding, through a statement of capabilities. • ACANs are posted for a minimum of 15 calendar days on the Internet on the government’s electronic tendering system. The system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. • ACANs open the process to additional electronic or traditional competition if a supplier’s statement of capabilities is valid. • I
