Evidence of meeting #32 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sauvé.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Well, that's good. So not only were you not contacted, but, no, you have not found any evidence that anybody within the entire department has ever heard from this gentleman.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
If I may, sir, with respect to this contract, our research was with respect to the LM Sauvé contract.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Then no: we've interviewed all of the people in the contracting and parliamentary precinct branches, and no one has ever heard of this individual and no one has ever been lobbied or influenced in any way.
I spoke yesterday to the person who is directly responsible for the file, and I confirmed that he has never been called, asked for any changes--just nothing.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
There's been a lot written in the newspapers about possible political involvement in the pre-qualifications of this contract. Is there any indication, is there absolutely any indication, of political involvement in the pre-qualifications of this contract?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
No, sir. As I confirmed in my opening comments and in response to questions, all of the amendments that were made to this pre-qualification.... The pre-qualification criteria were the same criteria we used in 2005, so they go back quite some ways. There has not been any indication that anyone tried to influence the pre-qualification criteria or the process itself.
We value the integrity of our contracting processes, and the employees who are involved in those contracting processes, as one of the prime values at Public Works that we bring to ensuring that value for taxpayers' money is provided in the some $13 billion to $15 billion worth of acquisitions we do every year.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
I apologize that we're rehashing a lot this morning, but we want to make it absolutely clear what the facts are in this case.
Next, did the minister award the contract to the Sauvé company?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Technically, sir, all contracts are awarded on behalf of the Minister of Public Works, but—
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Well, was it a delegated authority given to somebody else?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes, it was a delegated authority. In fact, the contract request was approved at the ADM level, by the ADM of acquisitions, my predecessor. But the actual contract itself was signed at the manager level.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
So this contract was given out via a delegated authority. Was anybody from the minister's office involved in the process of awarding this contract?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
No, sir.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
There's been a lot written about, and I think we have to go back to, the pre-qualification criteria and the fact that there were changes made to it. I'm curious about the evaluation criteria that were established. Did the criteria favour the Sauvé company? Or was there anything within the criteria that specifically favoured that company over another company?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Precinct Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Thanks for the question. I can maybe answer the first part, and then Mr. Ring can continue.
I want to emphasize the fact that the criteria were developed in 2005 for the first project of the southeast tower. We used the same criteria to go ahead with the second contract.
So these criteria had already been developed.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Okay. We heard that, and we understand that amendment 3(a) was I guess at some point applied to the first tower. Why wasn't that automatically put into the second contract?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Precinct Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The first contract for the Southeast Towers was also a pilot project that allowed us to learn from the expertise we were developing. That was a project of approximately $3 million, actually $3,950,000.
The second project, the Northwest Towers, was an $8.9 million contract. In the first tender, for the Southeast Towers, we had reduced some criteria. Given that the value of the contract had increased in the second case, we maintained the criteria that had been proposed at the time.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
In terms of the 3(b), was it the 3(b) amendment? There were two amendments. One was suggested by the Sauvé company. Could you describe the second amendment a little bit more?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The second amendment was to reduce the requirement for previous masonry experience, which I believe at the time was to have been involved in projects at the level of $2 million, and it was reduced to $1 million. That amendment, as I said earlier, actually would have been to the advantage of Sauvé's competitors, because Sauvé had the experience at the initial level.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Is it normal for these criteria to change at this point in the contracting process?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes, sir, that is quite a normal process, and if I may, I will expand on this for a couple of seconds. It's been referred to as “at the last minute”, yet in many of our contracting processes, first of all, 99% of bids are received within the last hour. Our contracting processes, quite normally within the last seven days, are frequently subject to questions and requests for change. That's absolutely quite normal.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
I just have one last question. I only have time for this one.
Who made the decision to award this contract to LM Sauvé, and what was the procurement process used to award this contract? I'm wondering if you could just explain that process.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Certainly.
Senior Director, Real Property Contracting Directorate, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The project management team on the technical side and my own groups in contracting have reviewed the documents, and the recommendation comes from us to award the contract. There are a few tiers. There are checks and balances here, so therefore a recommendation is made to a director general with a quality assurance review, and the recommendation is further forwarded to an assistant deputy minister, who approves the award of the contract.
