Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to turn now to the Auditor General's report and her findings about vendors. The report states, “We found situations where agency employees who were involved in the ArriveCAN project were invited by vendors to dinners and other activities.”
It goes on to suggest that “In our view, existing relationships between vendors and the agency's Information, Science and Technology Branch, as well as the lack of evidence that agency employees reported the invitations to dinners and other activities, created a significant risk or perception of a conflict of interest around procurement decisions.”
Wouldn't either of you suggest that non-competitive contracts, particularly given these findings, make it seem as though conflicts of interest could, in fact, be real?