Government Operations Committee on March 13th, 2024

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Perfect.

Can you tell me how many of the bids you received for ArriveCAN were open bids?

[Kristian Firth]

There was only one. To be clear, though, the other three still required price substantiation.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Firth, I'm interested only in ArriveCAN, because I'm trying to keep the focus on ArriveCAN. My colleagues want to go to the RCMP, or they want to go the other route, with Botler. I'm sticking with ArriveCAN.

Basically, what I understand of the process is the fact that this was a closed bid and that the rate that was established for ArriveCAN—naturally, because there were not multiple bids—was the rate you had put in as a suggested rate to the Crown.

Is my understanding correct?

[Kristian Firth]

Right, but there was also price substantiation that had to be provided. PSPC requested that I provide four other competitive bids that had similar categories and rates. It was actually going with four different competitive contracts that determined what the median was.

There was price substantiation. Although they were sole-sourced contracts, they still had to be price substantiated to prove value to the Crown.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Okay. Going off that, I don't understand why the Crown asked you to provide four others, rather than going and finding four others itself and then looking at the median. That I still don't understand, and I don't think that's the right way of doing it. That's what I consider to be a conflict of interest.

Let's go back to the number of RFPs. How many RFPs have you responded to from the government since 2015, so that you managed to secure between 60 and 65 contracts?

[Kristian Firth]

How many were there? There were 190 to 200.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Of the 190 or 200 RFPs that you responded to, you secured 60. Is that correct?

[Kristian Firth]

If you look through the contract, there are other ones that are $25,000 sole-sourced contracts.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

I understand.

My question was how many RFPs you have bid on, because I'm trying to figure out your success rate. If your success rate is 100%, I would like to question that. If your success rate is 30%, I would like to say, “Okay, that's reasonable.”

What is your success rate as far as securing government contacts is concerned, among those that you have bid on and secured 60 to 65?

[Kristian Firth]

It's 15%.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

You managed to secure 15% of the contracts that you bid on as part of the RFP, so 60 to 65 contracts represents the 15% that you won out of the contracts that you bid on.

[Kristian Firth]

It would probably be closer to 50, because, again, some of those are $25,000 sole-sourced contracts, which were closed bids. For the ones that were open for competitive processes, it would be about 15%.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Okay, it's 15%.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you. I'm sorry—that's our time. You're a couple of seconds past.

Ms. Vignola, you have two and a half minutes, please.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Firth, I asked you earlier about Dalian's invoices, and you gave me a name, Hoodspith, someone from the CBSA. Am I to understand that this individual worked for you as a subcontractor while working for the CBSA?

[Kristian Firth]

I think he was working for me as a subcontractor to the CBSA; that's the same thing.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

All right. He worked as a subcontractor for the CBSA while working as a subcontractor for you and Dalian. Is that correct?

[Kristian Firth]

I'm sorry. I don't understand the question.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I'll try to summarize it for you.

We saw that Dalian sent a bank transfer to “Hoodspith CBSA”. That would mean that Dalian was awarded a contract with the CBSA—I'm referring to Botler AI, here—and that Mr. Hoodspith was paid for his services through you. At the same time, Mr. Hoodspith was working as a subcontractor for the CBSA.

Do you see what I'm getting at? He was a subcontractor at two places, but was working for the same agency at the end of the day. Isn't that correct?

[Kristian Firth]

I'm sorry. Without having that information in front of me, it doesn't seem possible, because the CBSA has a rule whereby you can be on only one task authorization. That's to prevent that from happening—that you can be on only one task authorization at a time. The only thing I can think of that could have happened was that maybe there was a delay in billing. Again, the CBSA is pretty good. It makes sure that a person only ever has their name on one task authorization at a time.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

All right. That's something else that needs looking into, and the fact that this individual was subsequently transferred to PHAC with others is merely a coincidence.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Bachrach, you have two and a half minutes, sir.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Firth, I would like to go back to this issue of security clearances. The Office of the Procurement Ombud found that “GC Strategies Inc. did not meet the Document Safeguarding Capability when it was awarded the [$13.9-million non-competitive] contract” for professional services with the CBSA. When did you find out that you did not meet the security clearance for that contract?

[Kristian Firth]

We were told.... I think the amendment was made to the contract 13 months after it was awarded.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

So, 13 months into the contract, you were notified that you did not meet the security clearance.