I think it's important to say that the procurement rules in the federal public service encourage a competitive contract at the outset. A competitive contract should help improve the chances that you get better value for money when you bring more players to the table and that you get better services.
Non-competitive contracts, however, are allowed. There are certain exceptions. They are usually when it's a low dollar value, when only one vendor is able to provide the service, when there's a pressing need to issue a contract or finally when having a procurement process, a public one, would not be in the best interest. One of those exceptions, when it comes to departments and agencies, needs to be properly justified. What we found is that this was often not the case. It was not properly justified.