Question:
The practice, known as sole-source contracting, has been recently
condemned by the auditor general of Canada as wasteful of taxpayer
dollars. About six of every 10 contracts issued by Natural Resources are
signed without shopping around, says the audit, obtained under the
Access to Information Act.
Answer:
That's about 15 per cent of the $150 million in contracts issued each
year by Natural Resources, which includes the Canadian Forest Service.
Immediately apparent was a department-wide breakdown in contract
monitoring, which officials blamed on staff reductions since 1997.
"The audit noted that most monitoring activities have effectively
ceased," says the report, Value for Money Audit of Contracting.
"There have been no reviews undertaken of high risk areas, such as
contract splitting and sole-source contracting . . .
"In our opinion, the consequences of not monitoring are evidenced in the
instances of non-compliance noted during this audit and do not provide
assurance that value for money is being obtained."
Federal government rules do allow departments to issue contracts without
seeking competitive bids, but only under strict conditions.
The value of the contract must be less than $25,000, for example, or
there must be only one person or firm capable of doing the job.
The auditors said they found too many instances at Natural Resources
where those rules were either not followed or were circumvented, or
where the justification was vague.
The Canadian military does the same thing all the time. GM in Ontario
has repeatedly been direct-awarded huge contracts for armoured personnel
carriers. This is done because the Liberals simply don't care what
anyone thinks.
They could pass on the patronage dollars just as easily if they went to
tender (as they don't have to accept the low bid), but the Libs would
rather attack the Office of the Information Commissioner instead, in
order to shut them up. And it's only going to get worse.
