Postmedia News: Government Contract

Information Technology Dept: And while it seemed like a simple way to ensure fairness, documents obtained by Postmedia News suggest the decision over which company would get a one-year contract, worth $171,534, to provide information technology and telecommunications consulting services, was anything but straightforward, according to Montreal Gazette. According to one memo, the bidders were growing anxious over the delay and officials worried the department was running the risk the bidders would complain to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, or the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman and oTTAWA Faced with two identical bids for a government contract last fall, officials at Citizenship and Immigration Canada opted to toss a coin to determine the winner a rare method of last resort that is mentioned briefly in a government manual. From the decision to go with a best two-out-of-three coin-toss, to the Canadian quarter that was eventually used, many decisions had to be made in advance, and staff even sought legal advice on how best to proceed, some two-and-a-half months before the tiebreaker was finally held on Sept. 14 , 2012. That was three months after the bid period closed. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.