Hon. Marty Klyne: Senator Gold, I have a question about procurement.

Yesterday, the federal Procurement Ombud Alexander Jeglic published his annual report for 2023-24. The report highlighted some ongoing problems, including barriers to entry that narrowed the government’s pick of suppliers. Among the issues raised, the evaluation criteria were often unfairly biased to favour certain suppliers. There is a long-standing problem with the lack of the documentation necessary to demonstrate compliance with the rules and reasons for decisions. The report also notes a 23% increase in procurement complaints from last year, with almost 20% of complaints flagged by federal officials, suggesting that the issues have not just impacted external parties.

What steps will the government take to address this concern and ensure future procurement processes are truly competitive and accessible to all qualified vendors?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. It is an important question, and the issue is an important one to address. Indeed, the government is already taking steps to address the concerns that have been found in the procurement process to which you alluded. In particular, Public Services and Procurement Canada is acting to modernize government procurement practices so that they are simpler and less administratively burdensome. They will deploy modern comptrollership, encourage greater competition and include practices that support economic policy goals, including increasing the diversity of bidders, better vendor management and clear metrics.

This is in addition to the Supplier Diversity Action Plan which focuses on increasing the participation of business from under-represented groups in government procurement. The government will continue this important work of improving and modernizing the procurement process.

Senator Klyne: For consideration, the ombud recommends establishing a government-wide vendor performance management program that tracks the work done by suppliers after winning their bids. Low performers can then be avoided, and good ones can be considered again.

Does the government agree that this is sorely needed? If so, what measures does it intend to implement in the immediate future in order to establish this program and put it into good use?

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question.

As the first step in the process that I described earlier, the government has established the Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance, or OSIC, to bring necessary enhancements to the existing program of suspension and debarment. This action reinforces the federal commitment to strengthen responsible corporate governance within the supplier community and, to your question, to strengthen the government’s ability to better know with whom it does business.