Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the presenters this morning for taking the time to come here.
Obviously the procurement by the federal government is huge. They're the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the country. And we know that the government has stated its intention to cut $2.5 billion out of the annual procurement system over five years out of the $13 billion that they are currently spending, which is a sizeable cut.
Frankly, I don't think they're off to a very good start, because of course their contract for developing their cost-cutting strategy ballooned over 32 times their original estimate for the contract and ultimately ended up being 14 times the value of what was awarded. So their start in cost-cutting was not particularly strong. Nevertheless, there is concern about the cost of procurement, and if this initial contract is any indication, certainly that cost was out of control.
What we've heard from each of you is that there were announcements made about changes to procurement that would quite significantly change the way procurement takes place, and with very little consultation and in some cases no consultation. I'd like to know from you what is the best system to get your input on an ongoing basis, so that when changes are made they're made with the best information possible and we're not just hiring some consultant to come in and make a quick and dirty analysis but we're really truly consulting with the people who have the best information because you're the ones who actually work with the system every day.
So I throw that out as a general question: What kind of consultation would you like to see on an ongoing basis?