Government Operations committee  I'll speak to that in a more general answer. I can't comment on those particular aspects. The way we ensure integrity in the procurement process is very much around using process. The changes that we've put into the procurement system over the last three or four years have been about openness and transparency.

Government Operations committee  And I should also say that IT/NET was the fairness monitor for the 2009 procurement. That is the fairness monitor report that is actually posted on our website as well, if you search for—

Government Operations committee  Right now we have improved the statement of work. We've had discussions with a fairness monitor community to improve their ability to pronounce on fairness issues within the process. We would be happy to share the statement of work we now use for fairness monitors.

Government Operations committee  I'll quickly speak to that. The certification process was put in place that required the assistant deputy minister to sign off from the client departments on the information provided by those departments, on the volumes and usage of the program. We sought that because one of the issues that has come up in the past has been whether the data available was accurate or not.

Government Operations committee  We're beginning to launch the process, so we'll be engaging a fairness monitor in the very near future. We'll be working with the client departments to put together their initial requirements, which will be based on the policies that they have to deliver on for their employees, so Treasury Board, RCMP, and the Canadian Forces.

Government Operations committee  We haven't gone through that experience. We do terminations for convenience, but we haven't terminated under that particular section of the regulations, to our knowledge.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. The first thing is on the evaluation of the financial component of a bid. Our procedures have changed; we now require two or more to participate in that evaluation. We also do the governance regime on more complex procurements. This would be qualified as a complex procurement, and it now has a DG steering committee, so at the director general level, that works across client departments and is chaired by Public Works and Government Services.

Government Operations committee  I will just speak to the fairness monitor. The fairness monitor is an independent third party that our departmental oversight branch, which is an independent group within the Department of Public Works.... A colleague, an assistant deputy minister, administers the program. The fairness monitors are hired under contract to do any procurement where we believe a fairness monitor would be useful.

Government Operations committee  Yes, Mr. Chair. I'll do that. Good morning. I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss the integrated relocation program. I am Pablo Sobrino, the associate assistant deputy minister for the acquisitions branch at the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Very simply, we're part of a continuum. We're filling a gap that was identified. It's what the former committee recommended back to the government, which was that there are inventors and there are mechanisms for commercializing, but it's that in-between stage. This is what this funds, that in-between before you become commercial.

Government Operations committee  We're doing what we can with the money we've received.

Government Operations committee  I would like to say that this is a new program, a pilot project. We have to determine the right way to do things. It's difficult to compare it to the American program. The U.S. government has specific needs and is asking industry for innovations to meet those needs. We're doing innovative things in Canada.

Government Operations committee  As in most procurements, requests for proposals go out, proposals come in, we assess whether they meet the mandatory criteria. The mandatory criteria get knocked off, and then you're left with a bunch, and then you rank-order them in terms of how they meet certain evaluation criteria.

Government Operations committee  That's certainly an issue. We covered some of this on Tuesday, but fundamentally we're working with the Office of the Comptroller General to ensure that there are financial policies in place for quick payment and to get payments out immediately—within 30 days, generally. We've also included this as a management measure.

Government Operations committee  On the first question, we take the product at a point where it has been invented but not yet commercialized. They haven't monetized it, they haven't figured out how to sell it, but they need to assess whether it's a useful product. That's essentially the contract that the federal government is offering: you have a product that you think is worth something, that can do something, and we have many government departments with many interests.