Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, we consider SMEs to be a very important constituent for us and one of our objectives is to find ways to assist them. We are not lobbyists for SMEs. Let me just begin by saying that. Our job is not to get them business. Our job is to level the playing field. I think

Government Operations committee  We've had people come to talk to us about the complexity of the RFPs. We've had people say they didn't really understand the requirements. We've had people tell us that there are too many mandatories in it. We've had them asking why we need all these mandatory requirements just f

Government Operations committee  We'll take note of your concerns and the issues you've raised. We'll put them into our planning hopper and see what we can do.

Government Operations committee  I really think that “better notes” is trivializing the issue, with due respect, sir. With due respect, sir, good records help the government defend a contract against challenges. Many cases have gone to CITT, and review backs this. There wasn't an audit trail. There wasn't a tr

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair—

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the documentation we're talking about relates to the procurement process. Now, there are more than enough rules on the books that require procurement processes. Please, nobody come out with any more rules; there are lots and lots of rules. Plus, all the trade agreem

Government Operations committee  I would have to go back and say probably more than 150.

Government Operations committee  The bottom line is really that these are the issues that are not resolved through additional regulation. These are issues that are resolved when you have a culture that says we have to be accountable for our actions and ethical considerations are just as important as legal consid

Government Operations committee  I started by saying, Madam Chair, that almost every audit report has drawn attention to this stuff. From an audit perspective, I think it is largely incumbent on internal audits and on the Office of the Auditor General doing audits. I don't do audits. I do reviews--

Government Operations committee  But we do take note of your issue here. We are going to see what we can do with our plans for future years to see how we could contribute.

Government Operations committee  My understanding is that all internal audits are supposed to be done based on a risk-based plan. What are the risks to the organization? If they identify procurement under $25,000 as a high-risk area, they should be doing internal audits in that area.

Government Operations committee  I'm trying very hard not to give government-wide opinions. We've only been in business six months. I really don't want to go back to my previous experience and start giving opinions. In the departments we visited this year, if you look at each one of our reports, there is some i

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, that's one of the first questions we asked. I'm not aware of any jurisdiction that has a procurement ombudsman within the private sector or in government--not in the provinces, not in Australia. Everybody has ombudsmen. For example, in Ontario there is one ombudsma

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for the record, I was appointed ombudsman designate in September 2007. I know the act was passed in 2006, but there was no ombudsman at first. I was only appointed as a designate. Then the regulations were prepared and it was in May 2008 that I becam

Government Operations committee  If you recall, I said that we were set up at a time when the procurement community was totally demoralized. They had been the subject of hearing after hearing, with headlines in the newspapers. A deluge of new rules had been sent out by the centre to respond to this crisis. The n