Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Samantha Tattersall. I am the assistant comptroller general for the acquired services and assets sector within the Office of the Comptroller General at Treasury Board Secretariat. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here today with my colleagues.
First, I'd like to take a moment to outline the role that Treasury Board Secretariat plays in supporting the management of investments and procurement, including defence procurement.
The management of investments and their procurements is a shared responsibility across the federal system. The Office of the Comptroller General, which is the area of Treasury Board that I work in, provides policy and guidance on investment planning, projects and procurement. Treasury Board sets the administrative policy framework within which departments operate, and deputy heads of departments are responsible for ensuring they have the right governance, systems and resources in place to manage those investments and contracts. It's important to note that Treasury Board administrative policy exists within a broader legal framework, whether that be the Financial Administration Act, departmental legislation, trade agreements, etc.
As you know, the Government of Canada manages thousands of projects in any given year and enters into hundreds of thousands of contracts on an annual basis. The vast majority of these are managed within departments and, where applicable, with Public Services and Procurement Canada as a common service provider.
The more complex and higher-risk projects and procurement may require additional Treasury Board authorities. The requirements for when Treasury Board approval is needed are set out in the investment policy, as well as the procurement directive.
In 2021, we made an important reset to our investment and procurement policies, and we moved away from a prescriptive direction to a principles-based approach to provide more flexibility to departments to manage within their individual operational contexts.
For contracts, the dollar limits over which Treasury Board authority is sought are set out in the directive on the management of procurement. These are set at departmental levels, and for specific circumstances there are also exceptional contracting limits. DND, for example, currently has six exceptional contracting limits that are above its basic limits.
In recognition that dollar value is not always a perfect predictor for complexity, I think my colleague highlighted that we have been working and innovating with PSPC and DND to increase efficiency and support the streamlining of defence procurement approvals. As Simon mentioned, we've been piloting an approach for defence procurements that establishes a risk-based contract approval process for low-risk, low- to medium-complexity defence projects where the value exceeds PSP's existing contracting delegation. The idea is that they're low risk and low complexity, so those don't have to come into Treasury Board.
With that, Mr. Chair, I am pleased to answer any questions from committee members.