The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba (WCB) invites firms to submit a Proposal for the following: Provide private investigation services and collect open source evidence to assist the WCB's Compliance Services conduct surveillance within the Province of Manitoba.
Description of Services
The WCB requires the Contractor to perform the following:
a) Provide individuals who are private investigators, as defined in The Private Investigators and Security Guards Act (Manitoba) (the "Investigators") who will do the following for surveillance:
(i) private investigation and surveillance of Targets within Manitoba, on an "as needed" basis;
(ii) maintain and securely store all notes, files, investigation reports, computer data, and video obtained during the Services with adequate backups or duplicate copies; and
(iii) carry out and do all things that are to be done by the Contractor to conduct a thorough investigation and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, supply all equipment (including multiple vehicles in some instances), storage facilities, and all other materials and supplies necessary for or incidental to conducting professional quality surveillance and investigation of Targets.
b) Undertake open source investigation (the activity of collecting, evaluating, and analyzing publicly available information) of Targets when the WCB has reason to believe that:
(i) an employer has failed to register with the WCB or a registered employer appears to be underreporting payroll to the WCB; or
(ii) a worker has failed to report a return to work to the WCB, actively attempted to conceal income while in receipt of benefits from the WCB, or recovered or partially recovered from the injury but misleads the WCB, or is involved in physical activities which are outside the medical restrictions related to their workplace related injury.
c) If requested by the WCB to conduct surveillance in a jurisdiction outside of Manitoba, be capable of conducting the surveillance in accordance with subsections 8(a) (ii) and (iii) above and the standards set out in section 12 below, either using its own resources or a subcontractor, with individuals that are licensed to conduct such activities in accordance with the laws of the foreign jurisdiction in which the surveillance takes place.
(collectively the "Services").
All open source investigation and surveillance work will be assigned and reviewed by a WCB Compliance Services officer.
Information collected by the Contractor in the course of an investigation is not to be used for any purpose other than reporting to the WCB and shall not be disclosed to any third party unless required by law.
Records shall never be left unattended in a vehicle or in any other premises unless the premises are a secure environment.
The Contractor must comply with the following standards when conducting surveillance on behalf of the WCB:
a) The Contractor must have a valid business licence as required under The Private Investigators and Security Guards Act (Manitoba) to provide private investigation services in Manitoba;
b) The investigation will be confined to the type and scope requested by the WCB;
c) If an Investigator is assigned by the Contractor to perform the surveillance or open source investigation components of the Services, they must possess a valid private investigator licence as required under The Private Investigators and Security Guards Act and be approved by the WCB to perform the Services for the WCB;
d) In accordance with The Private Investigators and Security Guard Act, if an Investigator is asked to identify their self, the Investigator is to give their name and indicate that they are an owner, partner, or employee of a provincially licensed private investigating firm that has been retained by the WCB. An Investigator is not to claim to be or give the impression that they are an employee of the WCB or a person in authority or a police officer;
e) Investigators are not to obtain information by methods that contravene any provincial or federal laws;
f) Investigators are not to accept information from or induce employees of public bodies to provide information if, in providing information, those employees have to violate their employers' policies or laws governing the release of such information;
g) Investigators are not to induce a Target who is being investigated to engage in an activity in which that Target would not otherwise be engaged;
h) All investigations must be carried out in the least obtrusive manner possible, and having regard to the circumstances of that investigation;
i) Investigators will not:
-enter onto the private property of the Target being investigated, except where the property is used by that Target for commercial purposes and where there is not a reasonable expectation for privacy;
-use a pretext or misrepresentation to gain access to any premises; or
-use the telephoto feature of a camera to reach inside a personal residence or other place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy;
j) Surveillance is authorized only:
-when conducted from a public vantage point; and
-in circumstances where the Target being investigated is not in a position where they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy;
k) Surveillance is not authorized:
-while the Target being investigated is in the privacy of a home or is in circumstances where they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy; or
-in, at, or near places used predominantly by children, such as school yards, playgrounds, and day care centres unless authorized by the Director of Compliance Services;
l) Whenever possible Investigators will determine where the Target being investigated goes, when the Target leaves their residence or vehicles, and observe what the Target is doing in public places;
m) Where video is not obtained, the Investigator must clearly document the activities observed;
n) The video data must:
-be recorded using the highest quality resolution reasonably available in the circumstances, preferably HD (High Definition);
-be unaltered in any manner;
-not include audio; and
-be stored in MPEG-4 video format or other format mutually agreed to with the WCB;
o) Whenever the Target being investigated is engaged in continuous activities, Investigators must ensure that continuous video-recording is conducted;
p) In exceptional circumstances, when continuous recording is not possible, Investigators will provide an explanation for any gaps; and
q) Should the integrity of an investigation be, or appear to be compromised by the Target's awareness or approach by neighbours, police authorities, or others, the Contractor will immediately notify the WCB Compliance Services officer who assigned the investigation.
The Services will be structured with the WCB engaging the Contractor on an "as-needed" basis, by both parties executing a Private Investigation Referral Letter (sample included with this RFP), for each engagement. The Private Investigation Referral Letter will include a description of the Services and the maximum budget assigned for completion of the engagement. Each engagement will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the Agreement and the Private Investigation Referral Letter.
The WCB makes no representation to guarantee any minimum amount of work will be assigned during the term of the Agreement.
At the completion of each surveillance engagement, as described in the respective Private Investigation Referral Letter, the Contractor must submit a report (the "Surveillance Investigation Report") to the WCB within five (5) Business Days or other period mutually agreed to by the parties. The Surveillance Investigation Report should provide the following:
a) Where video is not obtained, the Investigator must clearly document the activities observed;
b) Description of the assignment instruction as set out in the Private Investigation Referral Letter;
c) Short summary of the findings;
d) Explanation detailing how the Target was identified;
e) Description of the area(s) in which surveillance was performed and specific factors that may have adversely affected surveillance operations;
f) Detailed description in chronological order of the activities observed through surveillance, and where more than one (1) Investigator has obtained video data, all video evidence will be presented by each Investigator on a day by day basis in respective chronological order; and
g) All video, audio, or digital images captured as part of the engagement.
The Contractor must comply with the following standards when conducting open source investigation on behalf of the WCB:
a) Done passively and in a manner that does not contact, engage, encourage, or incite a person to create or post open source evidence or change their personal behaviour;
b) Comply with the terms of use of the respective posting platform (social network sites, websites, etc.);
c) Not collect evidence by providing false or misleading information about the identity of the person collecting the evidence, such as, but not limited to, posing as a friend or creating a false identity such as a false profile (but collection may be done in a manner that permits the identity of the person collecting the evidence to remain anonymous and obscured);
d) Not collect evidence by methods that contravene any provincial or federal laws;
e) Attempt to prevent, within commercially reasonable efforts, incidental capture of personal information of third parties;
f) Be documented in a manner that describes how and when the evidence was collected and must contain Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and timestamps for all information captured; and
g) All evidence collected must be stored in a manner that ensures it has been unaltered and is complete in its original form.
At the completion of each open source investigation, as described in the respective Private Investigation Referral Letter, the Contractor must submit an Open Source Investigation Report to the WCB within seven (7) Business Days or other period mutually agreed to by the parties.
The Surveillance Investigation Report and Open Source Investigation Report are each to be provided in an electronic format to the WCB by means of secure file-sharing platform (i.e. TitanFile). The transmission of investigation materials will be facilitated by the WCB. The following technical specifications must be met unless otherwise agreed to in advance by the Parties:
a) The Surveillance Investigation Report must be stored unaltered in PDF format;
b) Video files must be stored unaltered in MPEG-4 video format;
c) Digital images (non-video) must not be compressed or altered and must be stored in JPEG format;
d) Audio files must not be altered and must be stored in MP3 or MP4 format; and
e) All electronic files provided to the WCB must be virus free.
The Contractor must meet the following requirements:
a) Have valid business licence as required under The Private Investigators and Security Guards Act to provide private investigation services in Manitoba;
b) Have a minimum of five (5) years' experience performing similar Services for a Canadian public sector client (e.g. municipal, provincial, crown corporation, worker compensation board, federal government, federal agency, etc.);
c) Have the capacity to assign multiple Investigators to perform surveillance when required; and
d) Have a work-alone written policy for conducting surveillance.
The Contractor should meet the following requirements:
a) Provide Investigators that have experience performing surveillance in the following types of areas;
(i) high density urban areas (e.g., downtown Winnipeg);
(ii) suburban areas of cities and towns; and
(iii) rural areas;
b) Have the ability to perform surveillance of a Target who is:
(i) travelling in personal or commercial vehicle; and
(ii) travelling using public transport;
c) Be capable of providing surveillance on an urgent basis [within forty-eight (48) hours of WCB's request] within one hundred (100) kilometres of either the City of Winnipeg or the City of Brandon;
d) Have sufficient resources to deal with situations where the Investigator(s) is detected by a Target and the Investigator(s) need to be replaced to continue surveillance; and
e) Have Investigators available to perform surveillance in urban areas in northern Manitoba with road access.
The Proposal should include an overview of Vendor's profile highlighting its ability to provide the Services with details such as the following:
-number of Investigators on staff including the following details for each that may be assigned to perform work for the WCB:
-name;
-years of experience conducting open source investigations;
-years of experience conducting surveillance;
-court/arbitration experience (if any);
-experience and knowledge of the WCB's operations or similar types of client;
-any specific specialization in types of surveillance;
-professional memberships and affiliations with other private investigation firms in Manitoba or out-of-province;
-geographical coverage within Manitoba;
-out-of-province licensing (if any);
-list of any out-of-province investigation firms the Vendor has cooperated with in the past to assist with surveillance outside of Manitoba (if another firm is retained to assist with such
-surveillance they will be considered a Subcontractor for the purposes of the Agreement);
-proof of bond, deposit of securities and irrevocable letter of credit, as required by The Private Investigators and Security Guards Act (Manitoba);
-general liability and vehicle insurance;
-whether any of its Investigators have had their licence suspended for any period of time within the last two (2) years;
-specialized expertise or equipment for surveillance or investigation of insurance or disability claims;
-written guidelines and protocols relevant to surveillance procedures, preparation of reports, and video editing;
-standard equipment carried by Investigators;
-ability to alternate personnel and vehicles during surveillance;
-type of communication systems utilized and any limitations of same in remote locations such as rural Manitoba;
-ability to create still digital photos from video footage;
-secure e-mail or encryption software currently used;
-written guidelines and protocols for storage and destruction of clients' records;
-training protocols and procedures and work alone policy for staff;
-whether any potential conflicts may exist;
-include a sample copy of its proposed surveillance reporting template;
-written guidelines and protocols relevant to open source investigations; and
-include a sample copy of its proposed open source investigation.
It is expected the Services will be conducted at different times of the day including outside of Business Hours. The Contractor shall not be entitled to charge overtime rates unless specified in the Fee Schedule.
Even if the Contractor is not required under The Workers Compensation Act to have and maintain workers' compensation coverage in Manitoba, the WCB shall require the Contractor to purchase and maintain workers compensation coverage for its workers who will be providing the Services in Manitoba.
The Services shall be provided from the Contractor's facilities located in Canada, as applicable, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
It is expected the Services will be required for an initial period of three (3) years with a preferred start date of January 1, 2025. The WCB shall have an irrevocable option to further extend the Services on the same terms and conditions and fees for an additional period of up to two (2) years.
