Madam Chair, I'm relatively new, but I have 30 years of experience in the procurement business, with 28 years at the AG's office and a couple of years at Public Works. So I think I knew where to go and that's one of the reasons why we got off to a good start this year.
How do people know? We've established what I think is an outstanding outreach program and communications program. We have a website, a 1-800 number, and a very easy form to fill out on our website if people have a complaint. We have some performance standards. We try to get back to people within 24 hours of them calling us. We try to provide a more substantive answer within 48 hours. Usually within 10 to 12 days we have resolved the matter at hand.
One thing that does happen is that you get a lot of complaints in one area. For example, this year we were getting a lot of contacts from suppliers and supplier debriefings. We no longer think of it as a one-off; we think of it as a systemic problem and we move it to our practice reviews. We really feel that practice reviews are where we get the biggest bang for the buck, because that's where we go in and try in a proactive mode to prevent problems before they become big issues.