Mr. Speaker, I am answering on behalf of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.
In December 2002 a contract was awarded to Royal LePage Relocation Services of Don Mills, Ontario to administer the relocation process. The integrated relocation program is mandatory for members of the armed forces, the RCMP, public service executives, deputy ministers, governor in council appointees, and public service employees represented by unions.
On March 26, 2003 a complaint was filed with the CITT alleging that the government improperly applied the evaluation method set out in the request for proposals, RFPs, and that there was a bias in favour of the incumbent contractor, Royal LePage Relocation Services.
In July 2003 the CITT determined that the complaint was valid in part and recommended that Public Works re-evaluate certain sections of the bidders' proposals using a modified evaluation process. However, the allegation of bias was found to be not valid.
In the interim, a separate complaint of conflict of interest was filed by another bidder, Relonat/Envoy, in relation to the award of this contract. Public Works investigated the allegation of conflict of interest and found that while there was no evidence of criminal activity, there was a perceived conflict of interest. Public Works decided to conduct a new procurement process to ensure a fair, open and transparent process.
Two new contracts were awarded in November 2004: one contract for the Department of National Defence, and a second contract for the RCMP and Government of Canada. There are provisions within both contracts to ensure a fair distribution of referrals to third party service providers. They are the people who provide appraisals, legal services, real estate services, building inspections, property management services, and rental searches. They have the opportunity to do so providing they agree to meet the conditions, service level standards, fee schedule, and administrative procedures established by the contractor in conjunction with the project authority at Treasury Board.
The contract clearly states that the selection of a third party service provider remains the employees' choice. If requested, Royal LePage will assist them in the selection of suppliers who have signed a commitment of service to provide them with those services. However, the request for referral is very rare, and has only occurred eight times since December 2002.