Public Accounts committee  I do, Mr. Chair.

Public Accounts committee  It's really up to the committee, Mr. Chair. There were just a couple of points of clarification that we wanted to make before the meeting began, but, as you said, the statement's very short, so if members want to dispense with the reading of it, I'm....

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We thank you for this opportunity to clarify certain of the issues from chapter 5 of our November 2006 report. The audit raised two primary issues. The first is that fairness in contracting requires that business volumes set out in the request for proposal be accurate and that all bidders have equal access to the correct information.

Public Accounts committee  The contract had been awarded, I believe, and yes, the contract was under way. The contract was cancelled and re-tendered.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Sloan is just telling me that in fact they continued to provide the services until the new contract was signed.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that's right.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  As I mentioned earlier, I really believe it is up to government to decide what action it will take. It would appear that government does not agree with us that the process was not fair and was not equitable. Certainly that is the indication we have received, that government's intention is to continue with the contract and review the process when it comes up for tender again.

Public Accounts committee  I can't answer that. We obviously haven't done the analysis. I presume the government has probably done that analysis of the different options. The contract was re-tendered already once, based on allegations and conflict of interest.

Public Accounts committee  I would presume it is part of the contract. I have seen these kinds of things in the private sector as well. But in instances like this, it's usually part of the request for proposal, and the bidders would take the timing of the payment into account when establishing a price. It would be part of the contract.

Public Accounts committee  I can't answer that, and I don't believe the department could answer it, because you would have had to get a bid using a longer payment term. One would expect it to be less expensive, but I can't answer whether or not it would have been.

Public Accounts committee  That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  I would say that I think generally the process is adequate. I think, though, that what this case demonstrates--and that's perhaps an issue we should look at in an effort to improve things going forward--is when suppliers raise concerns, who has the responsibility to actually validate the information?

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask Mr. Sloan to respond to that.

Public Accounts committee  I understood the question from Mr. Laforest as specific to this particular bid proposal and the rationale in this particular case, which was the documentation we were asking for. So I understand the documentation for this specific proposal does not exist, which is consistent with what we are saying in the report.