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| Pamela Stewart |
| B.A., LL.B., PMP, Stanford Certified PM, MCBA, ITIL V3 |
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| Promoting transparency in government contracting |
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Comments are welcome |
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This blog promotes transparency in BC government contracting. You can e-mail me at pstewart@pstewart.com. If I publish your comments on this blog, I won't use your name. |
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Contracts awarded under the QSLs |
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I have submitted two requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act asking for the names of consultants who received contracts under the following Qualified Supplier Lists (QSLs), the Ministries for which they were contracted to provide services, and the value of the contracts:
Period Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 2010 - On December 7, 2010 I requested a list of all consultants who had been awarded contracts between January 1, 2010 and November 30, 2010. I received a response on January 5, 2011 at no charge. Period Dec. 1, 2010 to Jul. 31, 2011 - On July 28, 2011 I requested a list of all consultants who had been awarded contracts between December 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011. I receved a response on November 14, 2011. I was charged a processing fee of $495 covering 16 hours to locate and retrieve the records and 3.5 hours to prepare them for disclosure. I requested a fee waiver but this was denied because, although the issue of government contracting may be of public interest, these specific records are not a matter of public interest. Given that 16 hours were required to find the records, it appears that there is really no oversight going on. If there were oversight, records or reports from ministries would presumably be collected during the normal contracting process and would be readily available. |
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Training materials given to Ministries' selectors |
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Apr. 7, 2011 - I submitted an FOI request for "a copy of all training materials, instructions and policies provided to Ministries' employees regarding how to search the Qualified Supplier Lists". The response was received on May 18, 2011. The pages of the response (following the covering letter and FOI info) are numbered in the top left corner. Course materials for Ministries are on pages 1-27, and there are further instructions beginning on page 72. |
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Search results provided to Ministries' selectors |
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Feb. 18, 2011 - I sent questions to Shared Services BC (SSBC) about what information is given to Ministries' staff who select consultants. Below are the questions and the SSBC reply: QUESTION 1: Please explain exactly what information is used to determine the consultants who are considered by ministries for selection. For example, is a keyword search done of all consultants’ Appendix C, and a search of the checkboxes in all consultants’ Appendix E? Is a keyword search of all resumes conducted? Answer: Ministry selectors have all been trained in the selection processes described in section 5.1.5 of the RFQ document. There are several approaches that can be used in the creation of a shortlist—keyword search is one of them. Others are the Appendix E information, rates, etc. Some selectors know what Service Area they want to search; others may be interested in a technology, and select on that, across Service Areas. QUESTION 2: What is provided to the ministry selectors? For example, are Appendix C, Appendix E and the resume always provided? Answer: The entire Consultant particulars file is provided to the selectors. QUESTION 3: The RFQ says that a resume of “maximum two pages” may be submitted. I have 20 years of consulting experience and would like to submit a longer resume. I am a qualified consultant on 5 lists under this RFQ. If I submit a resume that is longer than 2 pages, is there any risk that I will be disqualified from these lists? If not, may I submit an updated resume as an NE UPDATE (non-evaluated update) submission? Answer: The Province prefers a 2-page resume, but uses the word “should” (indicating a preference) rather than “must” (indicating a mandatory). QUESTION 4: [This is a follow-up question sent to SCBC on Feb. 25th.] I’ve looked at section 5.1.5 of the RFQ document. It doesn’t answer one my key questions, which is whether the trained ministry selectors can search the resumes, or alternatively are they only given the resumes after selecting a consultant based other sources (e.g. Appendix C and E)? Answer: The Consultant particulars files referenced in the answer to question 2 usually contains the Appendix C, Appendix E and resume. Once the selectors have received training, they have access to all Consultant particulars, and can thus perform searches on all Consultants or a subset by Service Area / Experience Level. However, Consultants who were presented before the July 09 posting, and who have not updated their particulars since then, will not have Appendix E in their particulars. Also, a few Consultants did not include a resume at the time they were presented. |
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Effort expended by the private sector |
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Jan. 12, 2011 - An IT consulting company provided the following sample figures about the number of hours expended by the private sector in responding to the RFQs: "From experience I can tell you that our staff spend 2-4 hours identifying and working with each candidate, then each candidate spends 6-8 hours to provide an updated resume directed at the opportunity, get references, and create a matrix document based on opportunity specific questions. Our staff then spend another 2-4 hours editing, preparing, and packaging the information for final submission. Companies are then expected to ‘refresh’ these submissions on a regular basis, which can be very time consuming." |
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Number of consultants on the QSLs |
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Jan. 3, 2011 - I submitted an FOI request asking for the number of individuals listed on the Qualified Supplier Lists. SSBC provided statistics on January 12, 2011. The reply noted that (a) a single consultant can qualify in more than one Service Area, and (b) the spreadsheet does not include consultants who have qualified but whose Qualified Supplier has advised they are no longer employed by the Qualified Supplier. |
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| This page was last updated on November 15, 2011. 240 |