On Friday,
July 8th, Community Living British Columbia (CLBC) posted
four notices of intent to contract to the BC
Bid® website. "Intent to contract" means
that the agency will proceed without bids unless an alternative
supplier can successfully object. The four contracts represent
$407,800 to be spent on IT (information technology) between
July 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005. The contracts also
permit billing for "allowable expenses" and three
of the contracts include an option to renew based on satisfactory
performance. The four notices of intent all state: "This
is a continuation of a development effort that has been
underway for some time and is based on the contractor's
participation to date." That means money was spent
prior to this $407,800 and more will be spent after December
31st. Awarding contracts on a piecemeal basis without bids
is not the best purchasing policy.
The
Doug Walls scandal that hit the Interim Community Living
Authority included contracts for information technology
services with CareNet Technology Society. According to the
PricewaterhouseCoopers'
audit into Walls and CareNet, the CareNet project cost
$3,776,848. The auditor was not able to obtain access to
CareNet's records as the Society was in bankruptcy and the
trustee would not permit access as there was no legal authority
to require it. No one is suggesting any irregularities with
respect to the current contracts, but the public has a right
to know how much is being spent on the entire IT project,
how much of that duplicates work that was previously paid
for but not necessarily delivered when the Interim Authority
and its predecessors were responsible and whether contracting
procedures recommended by the auditor are currently being
adhered to.
On July
8th the Ministry of Children and Family Development also
posted a notice of intent to contract: "Notice is hereby
given by the Ministry of Children and Family Development
(MCFD) of its intent to direct award a contract to Enterprise
Project Management Ltd. to provide project management facilitation,
co-ordination and administration for projects to support
the implementation of the MOU/Children's Agreement."
According to the notice, the Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) was entered into between the Ministry and CLBC "to
maintain continuity for families." The term of the
MOU is July 1, 2005 through June 2006, but the $30,000 contract
for "project management facilitation", plus allowable
expenses, is for a term of "July 18 to September 30,
2005, with an option to renew based on satisfactory performance."
At that rate, if it were necessary to renew the contract
until the end of the MOU, it could cost a further $108,000.
CLBC's
website does not provide access to the detailed MOU
which was signed between the Ministry's Deputy Minister
and the Interim Authority's interim chief executive officer,
but it provides access to a more general "Letter
of Expectations" dated July 1, 2005, and signed
by Minister Stan Hagen and CLBC Chair Lois Hollstedt. Hagen
and Hollstedt need to tell the public why it takes a consultant
at a cost of about $3,000 per week to manage that agreement.
Isn't that what the CLBC
staff are being paid to do?
Government
procurement policies are available on the Ministry
of Finance website. CLBC is just one week old and it
already seems to be having difficulty with those policies.
Finance Minister Carole Taylor, as well as Hagen, may be
held to account for postings to the BC
Bid® website that may stretch the spirit, if not
the letter, of procurement policies.
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