Evidence of meeting #159 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was audits.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
You do a lot of community outreach, I noticed. You're on social media. The office is on social media. You do town halls across Canada. You came to Windsor two years ago, if I'm not mistaken.
What portion of that budget is dedicated to community outreach and awareness? Awareness of this office, the OPO, has definitely been building.
Procurement Ombud, Office of the Procurement Ombud
Unfortunately, it's a very small portion. We try to be as creative as possible, and cost-effective.
As you mentioned, social media is an avenue we use. We also do outreach by way of town halls, many of which are virtual. We find interactions to be a little more authentic in person. We get a different appreciation of the issues suppliers are feeling when we actually go to their location. We don't have a significant budget for that travel component, but we have a national mandate that requires us to serve suppliers across Canada.
I know I didn't directly answer your question. We can submit how much we specifically spend on outreach in writing.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Yes, that would be great. I know you do a lot more than just analysis and reports. As I said, outreach is important to the office.
How would you measure ROI, the return on investment, for Canadians? If you were at a town hall with residents, how would you explain to them what the return on investment is for the Office of the Procurement Ombud?
Procurement Ombud, Office of the Procurement Ombud
Specifically on complaints, I guess the ROI is based on the statute and the regulations. The return on investment is to ensure fairness for them. It can be by way of compensation.
For mediation, it's also an expedient and cost-effective alternative to litigation, so there's a significant ROI there. While I can't quantify it, I can certainly say that those who have participated in litigation will extol the virtues of a one-day mediation process that leads to a mutual consensus resolution of the issues.
The ROI that's harder to quantify is on the systemic reviews in which we make recommendations to departments. Again, the point there is that we're talking about $37 billion of transactions, so whether the recommendations are around transparency or efficiency, the goals are always to make the process more efficient and simplify the process. While I can't quantify the ROI specific to procurement practice reviews, I would say that it is substantial.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Has there ever been an attempt to study or assess an ROI of the work of the Office of the Procurement Ombud?
I'm just curious.
Procurement Ombud, Office of the Procurement Ombud
Mr. Chair, it's a fair question. It's a question I've asked within the last year to help further support our request for financial resources and to be able to demonstrate the cost efficiency associated with the work that we do. We have not yet undertaken that work. As you can imagine, it takes resources and/or money to undertake that review and that's, unfortunately, the difficulty we're having. Even to put forward the financial ask itself is a laborious process. It's taking resources away from doing the analysis and the outreach, etc.
We are very committed. I think that if you ask the department about the professional nature of the proposals we put forward, you'll hear we do take them very seriously. We want to be very rigorous. However, in terms of quantification from a monetary standpoint, that is not something we have done yet.
December 10th, 2024 / 1:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much, colleagues.
Mr. Jeglic, I appreciate you being with us again. You've shown us, as always, why I consider you a friend of this committee. I hope we can do everything to support you. Perhaps, with the committee's approval, once you've done that study we spoke about earlier, we can have you back to discuss it.
Colleagues, we are going to suspend for about 30 seconds. We have a hard cap in about three minutes. I think we'll go in camera. I only need about 30 seconds of feedback from everyone on an issue.
Mr. Jeglic, again, thank you very much.
We're suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]