Thank you so much. It's very good to be here.
I really want to thank both our witnesses for being here and for their testimony. I will admit to being very frustrated listening to this. Before this work, I used to run a non-profit organization that had federal funding. I remember having to define what office supplies were. If I bought anything outside of the definition that I had provided in my application, I would not be reimbursed. So when I hear about people getting tons of resources with so little oversight, I just find it very shocking and frustrating.
Ms. Clarke, when you appeared before the committee in 2022 to discuss the ArriveCAN debacle, you said that this was a pretty standard story. You said that in your testimony today as well. We've heard from the Auditor General and from the procurement ombud, who sees this as a systemic issue in government contracting. When the procurement ombud spoke to the committee about his report on the McKinsey contracts, he said:
I do think that now is the time to act. We really need to reconsider federal procurement in its totality....I'm fearful that if I don't start acting in a more aggressive manner, significant changes will not come. I don't think band-aid solutions are the answer. I think there needs to be significant rethinking as to how federal procurement is done.
Do you agree that the government should take a more aggressive, government-wide approach to overhauling our procurement practices? If so, what would be your recommendations for the overhaul? Have those recommendations changed for all of those that you did provide to the committee back in 2022?