Procurement modernization and improving e-procurement
Context
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is delivering on Government commitments to modernize and simplify procurement, and to establish an electronic procurement solution.
Suggested responses
- The government is committed to modernizing procurement processes so that they become simpler, less onerous, ensure best value for Canadians and provide opportunities for more suppliers
- We are taking action by:
- implementing an electronic platform to make procurement easier and increase opportunities for all suppliers
- developing tools to track and manage vendor performance, to improve communications and relations with vendors
- simplifying our contracts
- increasing opportunities for small and diverse suppliers
- The government will also continue to use procurement to support broader priorities, including in innovation, climate change and reconciliation
Background
A substantial part of public investment is managed through public sector acquisition of goods and services, representing 13% of Canada’s gross domestic product, making it a fundamental lever to achieving social and economic objectives.
The government has committed to modernize and simplify procurement, and to establish an electronic procurement solution. A key step towards this goal was the purchase of a new electronic procurement system, as announced in Budget 2018 with $196.8 million over five years.
Public Services and Procurement Canada is modernizing government procurement practices so that they are simpler, less administratively burdensome, deploy modern comptrollership, encourage greater competition and include practices that support our economic policy goals, including innovation, green and social procurement.
This includes:
- increasing the diversity of bidders
- better vendor management
- clear metrics
- making government data available
- prompt payment
PSPC and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) have also launched a 2-year experimentation cycle to increase the award of contracts that use Indigenous, green, and social requirements by:
- identifying upcoming procurements that lend themselves to achieving socio-economic benefits for Canadians
- developing business cases to assess market capacities (such as Indigenous) and industry readiness (such as supplier diversity base)
- testing socio-economic procurement criteria and other innovative approaches that promote and advance socio-economic objectives
- evaluating existing procurement tools that could be used in these cases to further advance social procurement (for example, sole-source authority for low-dollar value procurement, set-aside provisions of trade agreements)
At the end of the 2-year experimentation cycle, PSPC and TBS will assess the findings of these initiatives.
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