Summit: Time for a shake up [Supply Operations Services Branch of Public Works and Government Services Canada restructured]

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Time for a shake up [Supply Operations Services Branch of Public Works and Government Services Canada restructured]

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At Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Supply Operations Services Branch was restructured to allow the procurement sectors to focus more on core procurement functions such as:

* providing advisory services earlier in the process;

* enhanced commodity expertise and specialist services;

* delivering end-to-end service; and

* implementing modern comptrollership.

Among the changes is a new Common Services Sector, headed in the interim by Jean Roy, bringing together cost/price analysis, forensic auditing/accounting, controlled goods registration, seized property management, crown assets distribution and industrial security. In the Supply Program Management Sector, a new directorate has an expanded role for client and supplier relations. Business Services and Operations Support will be responsible for the Technology Partnerships Canada Program, contract quality control, operational support, and human resources among others.

And over at Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) following the January 2002 announcement on restructuring budget and resource allocations, TBS is focusing on expenditure management and implementing its new framework-oriented approach to financial and human resource management and service improvement, as well as building a strong monitoring capability. A new Strategic Policy and Planning Secretariat, responsible for corporate policy, will coordinate policy functions and do strategic planning for TBS.

Getting serious

Human Resources Development Canada got serious about overhauling and maintaining the department's computer infrastructure. Ottawa's Sirius Consulting Group (www.sirius.ca), with a little help from Montreal's Cognicase, was hired to do the work on an "as and when requested" basis up to a contract value of $11.7 million.

The Auditor General of Canada (www.oag-bvg.gc.ca) got serious about modern comptrollership, saying in her recent report that most departments audited had not completed their implementation strategies and that Parliament is not aware of the risk the government faces if modern comptrollership is not incorporated in daily operations. She also identified some procurement concerns at Health Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and the Department of National Defence.

Ontario, getting serious about consultation between itself and its cities and towns, created a new Municipal Act taking full effect in January 2003. Calgary (www.gov.calgary.ab.ca/roads/streetlight) is serious about environmental and energy costs and is retrofitting neighbourhood streetlights with lower wattage, flat lens EnviroSmart Streetlights. ENMAX Energy Corporation will complete the first stage of the project by November 2002 with the remainder completed over the next four to five years. Cost savings are estimated at $2 million per year with a CO2 emissions reduction of as much as 16,000 tonnes per year. The project will cost $7.2 million, with $3 million being provided under the Infrastructure Canada - Alberta Program from the federal, provincial and municipal governments.

Statistics Canada got serious and licensed the Beyond 20/20 Professional Browser for all its desktop systems. Described as an "easyto-use tool for non-technical users," it facilitates the filtering, manipulation and extraction of statistical data, particularly that associated with the 2001 Canadian Census.

The State of Virginia got serious and passed the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002 (Senate Bill 681), authorizing private entities to "acquire, design, construct, improve, renovate, expand, equip, maintain or operate qualifying projects after obtaining approval" from a public entity. The Act identifies projects that qualify and the guidelines a public entity should use to determine approval.

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, getting serious about procurement, plans to contract professional procurement services as early as July 2002.