If people who had contracts under $25,000 for goods or under $100,000 for services had a complaint, if they had some concerns, or if they had not been given enough information about the awarding of a contract, the best they could do was either go back to the department about which they had the complaint to discuss it with them or else go sue. They went through evidence.
The CITT did not have the mandate to deal with their concerns at that time, so there was no independent third party to go to. When we were talking to suppliers, one of the things that came back to us again and again was the importance of having a neutral, independent professional body look at complaints.
Many times, the complaint really is not a complaint initially but only an inquiry, because people really don't understand why they didn't win a contract. Until somebody gives them a good debriefing and explanation, they don't know how they're going to win the next one. But if you don't deal with the inquiry in a proper manner, it becomes a complaint, and then it becomes a bigger complaint.
So they did not have a place to go to; they do have one now.