Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for appearing here today. We really appreciate having you here.
I want to speak to the mandatory standing offers to purchase common goods and services. I read through your presentation here and listened to you speak. You said that in your view “achieving operational efficiencies is important but It is also incumbent upon the government to ensure suppliers rights' to access government business”.
You also said, “One of the most significant observations relates to the usage data for monitoring and managing standing offers. Particularly troubling is that 30% of the usage data produced by government departments is unreliable because it could not be reconciled with any active standing offers”. From my perspective it's pretty damning to say that 30% of the usage data could not be reconciled with any active standing offers.
Then you go on to say, “Suppliers are required to submit regular reports on the contracts against their standing offers”. However, as you point out, “These reports are not being used by the government”.
There are two points there that I'd like to have you address.
You say, “This reporting requirement puts what appears to be an unnecessary burden on suppliers and results in extra costs”. You say, “The use of mandatory standing offers continues to attract a lot of concern from the supplier community” and you intend to continue the examination of this subject in future reviews.
The fact that you've made this observation.... From my perspective, these are two serious issues. I'd like to know what it is you intend to continue to examine and whether or not you actually have any teeth to deal with this issue.