The new Procurement Ombudsman of Canada’s four priorities

Ottawa, Ontario – October 4, 2018 – The Federal Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic released his first annual report for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, which was tabled Parliament by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, on October 3.

The report summarizes the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman’s (OPO) activities from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, identifies issues in federal procurement and outlines the most common feedback received from suppliers and federal officials.

Key issues highlighted in the report include:

• the need to simplify the procurement process, e.g. rules and regulations; resources required to respond to solicitations

• the difficulty qualifying for, and using procurement tools such as standing offers and supply arrangements

The Procurement Ombudsman also highlighted the fact that the Office celebrated its 10^th anniversary and that in the past decade, OPO responded to over 4,000 contacts, has completed 39 reviews of complaint, 19 procurement practice reviews of 30 federal organizations, and helped resolve disputes between federal official and suppliers in 31 cases.

In addition, Mr. Jeglic detailed his mandate’s four priorities:

• Transparency: to make more information available to Canadians, such as the public release of supplier complaint reports;

• Simplification: to simplify all information and tools produced by his Office;

• Growth in dispute resolution services: to strongly promote OPO’s Alternative Dispute Resolution services and obtain consent to participate in advance through contract language;

• Knowledge deepening and sharing: to perform deeper and more comprehensive analysis of procurement issues and help educate the procurement community on root causes of issues, and potential solutions.