1. In order to promote fair, open and impartial procurement procedures, each Party shall adopt and maintain bid challenge procedures for procurements covered by this Chapter in accordance with the following:
(a) each Party shall allow suppliers of any good or service of another Party to submit bid challenges concerning any aspect of the procurement process, which for purposes of this Article begins after an entity has decided on its procurement requirement, leading up to and including the contract award;
(b) a Party may encourage a supplier to seek a resolution of
any complaint with the entity concerned prior to
initiating a bid challenge;
(c) each Party shall ensure that its entities accord fair and
timely consideration to any complaint regarding
procurement covered by this Chapter;
(d) whether or not a supplier has attempted to resolve its complaint with the entity, or upon an unsuccessful attempt at such a resolution, no Party shall prevent the supplier from initiating a bid challenge or seeking any other relief available to such supplier;
(e) a Party may require a supplier to notify the entity upon initiation of a bid challenge;
(f) a Party may limit the period within which a supplier may initiate a bid challenge, but in no case shall the period be less than 10 working days from the time when the basis of the complaint became known, or reasonably should have become known, to the supplier;
(g) each Party shall establish or designate a reviewing
authority with no substantial interest in the outcome of
procurements to receive bid challenges and make findings
and recommendations concerning them;
(h) upon receipt of a bid challenge, the reviewing authority
shall expeditiously investigate the challenge, and may be
required to limit its considerations to the challenge
itself;
(i) in investigating the challenge, the reviewing authority may delay the awarding of the proposed contract pending resolution of the challenge, except in cases of urgency or where such a delay would be contrary to the public interest;