Thank you very much.
Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation.
As deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada, PSPC, I am pleased to be here to discuss the Auditor General’s report on the development of the ArriveCAN application, as well as the findings of the procurement ombudsman on the same topic.
I’m joined today by my colleagues: Dominic Laporte, assistant deputy minister, procurement branch; Catherine Poulin, assistant deputy minister, departmental oversight branch; and Ron Cormier, director general, business and technology solutions sector.
Public Services and Procurement Canada is the government’s central purchasing agent, ensuring departments and agencies have the goods and services necessary to deliver on their various mandates.
In this role, among other things, my department establishes and administers central procurement tools, such as standing offers and supply arrangements. Client departments and agencies can then access these tools directly for their procurements.
In the case of ArriveCAN, PSPC provided procurement support to the Canada Border Services Agency to procure professional services that were used for many purposes, including to develop the application.
As this committee has heard, the procurement ombud found that certain practices related to the procurement of professional services were inconsistent with government policy and the government's commitment to fairness, openness and transparency. Eight recommendations from that report were addressed to PSPC. The Auditor General's report makes one recommendation that implicates PSPC, namely, that PSPC and the CBSA should ensure that tasks and deliverables are clearly defined in contracts and related task authorizations.
Mr. Chair, we are committed—and I need to underscore that word “committed”—to ensuring that the lessons learned from the reports of the ombud and of the Auditor General are turned into concrete actions to make certain that the deficiencies uncovered do not occur again. We have taken many steps. We have already introduced several new control measures that begin to address these recommendations.
In November 2023, PSPC temporarily suspended all delegated authorities to the departments and agencies, including those of CBSA, to authorize professional services-based task authorizations. Later in December, PSPC provided direction to its procurement officers to ensure that task authorizations include a focus on clear tasks and deliverables. Now, federal departments must formally agree to a set of terms and conditions to obtain access to select professional services methods of supply.
Key changes also include the use of new contract provisions to increase costing and subcontractor transparency and to provide important clarifications on the roles of departments when using these instruments. The intent is to improve consistency in practices. Our department is also updating its guidance to aid other departments in procuring effectively and responsibly when using PSPC procurement instruments under their own authority.
We recognize that there is a real and immediate need to strengthen specific areas of our procurement processes related to professional services.
We will continue to build upon the actions I’ve outlined today, to improve the Government of Canada’s procurement process and practices.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.