Government Operations committee  Really quickly, the point in the annual report was really about all the federal departments and agencies that fall within our mandate.

Government Operations committee  A number of them—not PSPC—talked about the limited capacity they have, particularly in the medium and senior levels of procurement officers, so there is a system-wide need. Some federal organizations are in good shape; others, not so good. It's the ones that are not in good sha

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. We receive two types of cases at our office. The first one concerns complaints that are sent to us, and the second involves what we consider more as questions or issues that are raised and that we don't necessarily have the mandate to resolve. On th

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry?

Government Operations committee  Yes, the person or company can turn to us. In a situation like that, we basically have two choices. It may be an issue that deals directly with awarding a contract in particular. If the complaint falls under the regulations, we can undertake a review of the complaint. If someon

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, as I mentioned in my message in the annual report, one of the things I heard about last year was from suppliers who were raising questions and concerns about standing offers. If you take a look at prior annual reports from my office, you'll see t

Government Operations committee  Yes, sir.

Government Operations committee  That's a difficult question for me to answer, because I'm not necessarily an expert on the CITT. Their mandate does differ from ours. The CITT's mandate, as I understand it—and they would be able to explain it better than I can—really focuses on whether procurements that were und

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. As I mentioned, the annual reports issued from my office identify the concerns raised by federal suppliers through our outreach initiatives, where we go out and speak to as many suppliers across Canada as we can. There's no question that from a suppli

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. The vast majority of companies that contact us tend to be small and medium-sized enterprises that have questions or are looking for help or answers in terms of the procurement process. Our annual report identifies or lists their top procurement iss

Government Operations committee  If I may ask a question of clarification, do you mean in terms of the mandate that has been provided to the ombudsman?

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. That's a very interesting question. About four years ago, we had an evaluation of the office done to ensure that the office was operating as intended in terms of the mandate given to us by the Government of Canada. One of the things that we received

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for your invitation. It is a pleasure to speak with you about the work done by our office and its role in the federal government's procurement process. I was named interim procurement ombudsman in May 2016, after having occu