Information & Ethics committee  There is, actually, a varying timeline for contracts. If it's a sole-source contract for simple services for which a vendor is identified, the department could, in practice, award that within two weeks to a month, on average. If it requires a competitive process or the services a

Information & Ethics committee  Consideration is given to how critical the service is. There are certain policies that allow for emergency procurement, and what constitutes an emergency is defined in a policy, which would allow for a streamlined approach to procurement. However, that is made at the initial dete

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not aware of the members of Parliament's procurement process, no. I'm sorry.

Information & Ethics committee  At Global Affairs, when a client—we call them “fund centre managers”—requests a service, there is an attestation process or a certification process that asks them to certify that the goods were received, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  The attestation is confirmation that the goods were received in accordance with the contract.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I have worked in three federal departments.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Normally, the department awards on average about 10,000 contracts per year, with a total value of about $300 million to $500 million. I can't give you the exact proportion of sole-source contracts right now, but we can provide that information later.

Information & Ethics committee  There are certainly more than 1,000 of the 10,000 total.

Information & Ethics committee  We don't do it in the contracting process.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, the process is the same.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, there have been situations where conflicts of interest were declared. In those cases, as I said earlier, we ask the contracting officer to exclude the person with the conflict of interest from the contract award decision-making process. This may apply to a direct manager req

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, it is the same process.

Information & Ethics committee  No.