Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, if I may answer that last question, I don't think you should assume automatically that every ACAN is a bad contract. I don't think you should assume automatically that just because you're going the ACAN route, there is something wrong with the transaction. But I thin

Government Operations committee  --and did you really intend to do that?

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I don't think this was done just after the sponsorship thing. I think these rules have been there for a while. They have been in place for many years, even before sponsorship.

Government Operations committee  To me, it does.

Government Operations committee  “Unintended behaviour” refers to issuing an ACAN where no ACAN was necessary. For example, you know that it's not in the public interest to have a second bid, but you issue an ACAN and your authority goes up. Really, you should have never done that in the first place. You should

Government Operations committee  I was really struck by the number of people within the procurement community who are working so hard in such a difficult environment. There's just a plethora of rules out there and some of them contradict each other. They see themselves as being in a glass bowl. They see themse

Government Operations committee  Are you talking about recent experiences? I'm not going to go back to what I saw at the AG's office.

Government Operations committee  I'd have to say the most interesting things are the things that you least expect. Recently we looked at a situation in which somebody had asked for a change-management expert with 35 years' experience. How could that possibly help? I remember looking at one file some time ago wh

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, yes, that is what we're concerned.... You see, sole-source contracts or directed contracts are considered high risk in principle, and the risk mitigation strategy that the government has is that it gives lower levels of authority to government officials. You have to

Government Operations committee  Under an ACAN, because ACAN is considered to be exactly the same as electronic bidding. There's nothing wrong with the deeming provision, by the way. The Income Tax Act has deeming provisions, too, but your authorities shoot up.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  That's right.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  What it says to me that we have to look at the application of the tools, because, really, something is wrong in the way the thing is working out. Mr. Martin, keep in mind that between fully competitive and ACANs, you do have limited tendering. Limited tendering is when you go ou

Government Operations committee  Let me go back to a very important issue. Unlike other ombudsmen, we are not dealing with personal grievances. We are dealing with commercial transactions. Two parties have either signed, or are about to sign, a commercial contract, and that contract gives both parties rights and