Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
What we've heard today several times is how far back these issues of procurement actually go, starting from as early as at least 2009. Our committee actually received documentation of the cost of these insiders against the better wishes for what I believe could have been work done by the public service.
Between January 1, 2011, and February 16, 2024, when our committee requested the documents, we found that the Government of Canada, through two subsequent governments, was able to give three companies over a billion dollars.
My concern is about how this can happen. How can consecutive governments explode in resourcing three contractors by continuously feeding into these contractors and subcontractors in a giant web?
The Auditor General actually found, in finding 1.50 of her report, for those who know it, that:
Multiple amendments were made to those non-competitive professional services contracts. Approximately half of the contract amendments extended the contract beyond the original period, which prevented or delayed opportunities for other contractors to compete for work.
Ms. Lee, you said that the invoicing was pre-approved by the government and that the process never changed, when it has been established by the AG that this was a non-competitive contract with a lack of proper financial documents to verify these details.
Ms. Lee, did you have any awareness of how the invoices and task authorization amendments were increasing costs without deliverables to such an extent overall in this project?