Madam Chair, that's a fascinating question. it really requires a little bit of explanation.
We have a business model which says essentially that we would work in collaboration with all the stakeholders: the suppliers and the procurement community. We would rather do things in a collaborative manner than through confrontation. The fact of the matter is that the regulations put out following our act have a very deeply prescribed, regulated, legalistic way of doing investigations. If we were to do all investigations this way, it would take us months.
When we consulted with suppliers, again and again people told us they had no interest in long drawn-out investigations. They do have a very deep interest in resolving the problems very quickly so that they can go out and manage their businesses.
When we talked to the public sector community and public procurement officers, it was the same thing. They have no time to spend on investigations. They would rather just say, “Tell us the problem and we can resolve it”.
So the business model we developed in collaboration with supplier communities was as follows. Look, we said, before you put in a formal complaint--because if you put in a formal complaint I have no choice but to do an investigation--can you give us 8 to 10 days to see if we can solve your problems?
In every case they have said that's a good idea. In every case they've come back to us and said, “Here's our issue, so can you do something about it?”. In every case we've gone back to the departments. We've phoned our liaison people. We've talked to the procurement community. In some cases--even last week I was doing this--I would go to the deputy ministers of various departments and say, “Do you really want us to do an investigation or can you help to resolve this matter?”
I can tell you that in 99.9% of the cases the matter has been resolved within two weeks. Everybody has gone on with their business and has been perfectly happy.
Remember: my objective in life is to strengthen the confidence of Canadians in public procurement. Every time you start a formal investigation, no matter what the result, there is a stigma attached. Every time you do a formal investigation there are people who are going to have to produce detailed records. Suppliers are not interested in that. Their main interest is to resolve the issue and that's what we do.