Thank you for your question.
I believe that it is important to exercise due diligence, which involves a thorough review of all the particularities of contracts. You have to ensure the legitimacy, the capacity—that is always key—and the financial stability of the entities with which you are considering doing business. Those three important criteria should always be considered.
Furthermore, you need to look at the officers and their capabilities. In a situation of crisis, if you decide to award contracts directly, without going through the usual tendering process, you have to have procedures to compensate for that. You must therefore document as much information as possible, and all the existing information about companies, the simplest of which are their financial statements. You can check and confirm with certain agencies, such as the Canada Revenue Agency, that companies are in good standing. That is very important.