Have you ever worked late into the night preparing a proposal for a large assignment and thought to yourself, “There must be a better way to do this?”

Well, Canada’s largest purchaser of public relations services, the Federal Government has just invited industry comment on a new standard Draft Request for Standing Offer that would be used to select firms to provide PR services to departments and agencies.

The Standing Offer system allows the government to pre-qualify firms as suppliers through a competitive process. Firms then may be contracted for specific services by the departments and agencies for which they have been pre-qualified.

I’ve been told that the Federal Government purchases between $5 million and $7 million in public relations services each year. That’s a big target that entices many companies to compete for assignments.

We all benefit from a fair and effective selection process for work. The current Request for Industry Comment provides us with an all-too-rare opportunity to suggest improvements to this process.

If you have bid for government work in the past or if you have been discouraged from doing so because of the bidding process, don’t miss this opportunity to comment on the government’s proposed new selection process. Download the Draft Request for Standing Offer and submit your comments before February 26, 2007.