If you look at the top-10 list of issues that we publish on a yearly basis, you'll see that communication.... It comes in two forms. One is during a live solicitation process. There's the question and answer period where suppliers have the right to ask questions of the contracting authority and get answers so they can prepare a response of bids. At times, the answers they receive are either not responsive or not timely, and that has an impact on their ability to provide a response of bids.
The second aspect of communication is also something that we see in terms of regret letters and debriefs. The quality of information varies greatly. Some departments do an excellent job providing debriefs that are really fulsome and give suppliers a real opportunity to improve bids in subsequent processes. But there are other circumstances where departments may not provide such detailed information and therefore leave suppliers relatively unsatisfied with their involvement in the process.