Canada Revenue Agency - Digital Mailroom Project - Fairness Monitor Report

Submission Date:
November 1, 2019

Submitted To:
Director, PSPC Fairness Monitoring

Submitted By:
Deloitte LLP.

Introduction

Deloitte LLP (Deloitte) was engaged by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) on September 19, 2018 as a Fairness Monitor (FM) to observe the competitive procurement process related to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Digital Mailroom Project (DMP). This procurement process was undertaken by the CRA and was initiated by an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) 1000332079.

Deloitte is an independent third party with respect to this activity.

We reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities conducted.

We hereby submit the final report covering the activities of the Fairness Monitor (FM), commencing with a review of the draft ITQ on October 4, 2018, continuing through the question and answer period related to the ITQ, the evaluation of bids and the selection of the Qualified Respondents. Deloitte was not involved in the procurement process subsequent to the ITQ phase.

This report includes our attestation of assurance related to the ITQ phase of the procurement, a summary of the scope and objectives of our assignment, and relevant observations from the activities undertaken.

Attestation of assurance

The Fairness Monitor hereby provides the following unqualified assurance statement concerning the Invitation to Qualify phase of the procurement of the Digital Mailroom Project.

It is our professional opinion that the competitive procurement process we observed was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

Project requirement

Overview of the Project

The CRA accepts documents (e.g. tax returns, receipts, forms and letters) in numerous ways from taxpayers/benefit recipients through a variety of input channels (mail, secure portals, fax, drop boxes etc.). Each input channel has independent processes for managing the documents received. Although it has introduced digital service options to taxpayers/benefit recipients to facilitate their interaction, the CRA continues to see high volumes of paper correspondence, generating significant effort to support different workflows. These processes include 1) paper processes, 2) digital processes, and 3) disparate scanning operations.

Through a strategic and ongoing partnership with an external MSP (Managed Service Provider), the project would create an enterprise-wide digital mailroom solution which would be leveraged across the CRA. Today, work is done in various control areas across the organization. In the future, incoming correspondence will be received, digitally imaged, data extracted, and captured by the MSP. This would facilitate the processing, sharing, and accessing of images across the CRA and transmit required business process data to the CRA. The solution would also make this information available to multiple users across the CRA according to predefined business rules and user access requirements.

Objectives of the fairness monitoring assignment and methodology

The Fairness Monitoring Directorate of PSPC required the services of an FM to monitor CRA’s DMP procurement process. The overall objective of the assignment was to provide an independent observation of the process and to provide fairness-related comments to the Contracting Authority, as early as possible, so that appropriate action could be taken before fairness was impacted.

To accomplish the objective, we undertook the following activities and, where applicable, provided fairness-related comments to the Contracting Authority:

• Familiarized ourselves with the project governance structure and relevant background information;
• Reviewed the ITQ documents;
• Reviewed the ITQ’s three amendments and answers to questions from potential respondents prior to issuance;
• Reviewed plans for evaluation of ITQ responses; and
• Observed the application of the ITQ evaluation process including observing the consensus meeting of the evaluation team, and reviewed proposed clarification questions and other correspondence submitted to respondents.

Fairness monitoring engagement and observations

Deloitte was engaged as a FM to observe the competitive procurement process for the CRA DMP procurement, and to attest to the fairness, openness and transparency of this monitored activity.

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents, identifying fairness-related matters to the contracting authority and ensured that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate.

The following describes the FM activities undertaken during the course of the engagement related to the ITQ phase, and our related observations.

ITQ release

From October 4, 2018 to October 17, 2018, we reviewed the draft ITQ document including Annexes. No fairness deficiencies were identified.

From October 18, 2018 to October 19, 2018, we reviewed the final ITQ document including Annexes. No fairness deficiencies were identified.

The ITQ was posted on October 26, 2017 and closed on January 9, 2019.

Q&A process

From November 15, 2018 to December 20, 2018 we reviewed the ITQ’s three amendments and answers to questions from interested parties. No fairness deficiencies were identified.

Evaluation and selection process

From January 14, 2018 to January 21, 2018, we reviewed plans for evaluation of ITQ responses and provided fairness-related comments to the Contracting Authority as required. Appropriate action was taken by the Contracting Authority and no fairness deficiencies were identified.

On January 23, 2019, we observed the application of the ITQ evaluation process including observing a consensus meeting of the evaluation team. No fairness deficiencies were identified.

We note that the ITQ phase resulted in one successful Qualified Respondent for the next phase of the procurement. As a result, our work covered the ITQ phase and Deloitte was not involved in subsequent phases of this procurement.

Reference documents

Documents obtained from Buyandsell.gc.ca

Documents related to ITQ 1000332079 are available on Buyandsell.gc.ca and are summarized in the table below.