ARCHIVED - Procurement Reporting for Calendar Year 2010 (to be reported in 2011)

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Contracting Policy Notice: 2011-1

File No: 7010-003 and 7010-004

Date: January 31, 2011

To: Functional Heads, Finance and Administration of all Departments and Agencies

Subject: Procurement Reporting for Calendar Year 2010 (to be reported in 2011)

Summary

For the calendar year 2010, all reporting requirements using the Datacap software of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) remain the same as for calendar year 2009. Departments/agencies are requested to submit their procurement data to PWGSC no later than April 29, 2011. This will enable PWGSC to produce the 2010 procurement reports on a timely basis.

Beginning in calendar year 2011 (to be reported in 2012), departments are requested to report on individual call-ups instead of an entire standing offer agreement.

Introduction

1. Each year the Government publishes, on the Internet, statistics on procurement contracts awarded by departments and agencies. The annual Purchasing Activity Report identifies the processes and tools through which government purchasing is conducted based on the Government's policy framework.

Reporting Entities

2. Entities that must report are the contracting authorities, as defined in the Government Contracts Regulations and the Financial Administration Act (FAA):
   1. The appropriate Minister, as defined in paragraph (a), (a.1) or (b) in section 2 of the FAA, as follows:
      1. with respect to a department named in Schedule I, the Minister presiding over the department,
         • (a1) with respect to a division or branch of the federal public administration set out in column I of Schedule I.1, the Minister set out in column II of that Schedule,
      2. with respect to a commission under the Inquiries Act, the Minister designated by order of the Governor in Council as the appropriate Minister,
   2. A departmental corporation named in Schedule II to the FAA, and
   3. The National Capital Commission.

Authorization and Deadline

3. In sending procurement data to PWGSC, the electronic transmittal document must indicate the name and position of the individual at the Director level who has reviewed and approved the data for release. Otherwise, the data will be returned to the originator. The deadline for providing the calendar year 2010 procurement data of your department/agency to PWGSC is April 29, 2011. However, data available prior to that date should be forwarded to PWGSC immediately. This will enable PWGSC to produce the 2010 procurement reports on a timely basis.

Reporting for 2010

4. All reporting requirements remain the same as for calendar year 2009. The requirements consist of two parts. The first part comprises entry of procurement data using version 3.3.0 of the PWGSC Datacap software. For this part, please do as follows:
   1. Do not report acquisition card transactions. This information will be obtained from sources within the Treasury Board Secretariat.
   2. For standing offers established by your department/agency, continue to report the value of the entire standing offer agreement by estimating the total value of individual call-ups (for the period of the standing offer).
   3. Do not include standing offers established by other departments or by PWGSC.
   4. Count each standing offer agreement as one data item.

      Reporting standing offers in this manner using Datacap is required to satisfy our reporting obligations under international trade agreements.

5. For the second part of the reporting requirements, please provide separate data on individual call-ups issued in calendar year 2010 against standing offers and supply arrangements established by PWGSC by completing the report entitled "Standing Offer or Supply Arrangement Business Volume Report," which can be downloaded from PWGSC's GENet web site. Dropdown menus and guidelines are provided at that website to assist in completion of the document. Such data will assist in determining the extent of usage of standing offers and supply arrangements established by PWGSC and will be helpful to commodity managers in refining their sourcing approach. Please send this data to PWGSC along with your Datacap data. It is imperative that this data NOT be included within any of the five files created using Datacap, but rather reported separately using the downloaded spreadsheet "Standing Offer or Supply Arrangement Business Volume Report" to avoid double counting of procurement activity.

Reporting in Future

6. Up to now, departments have been asked to report entire standing offer agreements instead of individual call-ups for two reasons: (a) To satisfy Canada's reporting obligations under international trade agreements, since our trading partners would like to know the potential business opportunities flowing from standing offer agreements; (b) In the past, quite a number of departments did not have the capability to report call-ups.
7. However, call-ups are in fact contracts and the standing offer is the framework under which those contracts are awarded. Also, a department that sets up a standing offer agreement cannot accurately forecast the extent of usage. Furthermore, as Contracting Policy Notice 2008-1 pointed out, "with the extensive use of standing offers established by PWGSC, it is ….. impossible for that department to estimate the extent of usage ….. with any degree of accuracy. Consequently, it might be more beneficial to the Government of Canada as well as its trading partners to collect and report data on call-ups against standing offers."
8. That policy notice also mentioned that "extensive consultation is required before changing the manner of collecting and reporting data on standing offers. One of the deciding factors is the extent to which departments can accurately report data on call-ups against standing offers. Accordingly, departments are invited to provide input ….. in this regard." All departments, that have provided input, favour reporting on individual call-ups against PWGSC standing offers, rather than an entire standing offer agreement. Furthermore, unlike ten years ago, all departments appear to have the capability to provide data on call-ups, since none of them has indicated otherwise.
9. For Standing Offers put in place by departments themselves, departments are asked to report individual call-ups rather than entire standing offer agreements effective January 2011 (to be reported in 2012). Each call-up will be reported using Datacap like any other contract. That is, contracts and call-ups below $25,000 will be reported only in aggregate, while each contract and call-up over $25,000 will be reported individually.
10. Meanwhile, PWGSC will decide whether it still needs departments to complete the "Standing Offer or Supply Arrangement Business Volume Report" in 2011 and beyond.

Reporting Process

11. Please access PWGSC's GENet web site where you will find the Datacap software version 3.3.0 with instructions on how to either:
    1. download this data entry software to your personal computer, or
    2. create your own electronic ASCII text files in the required formats.

Note: Please ensure that the latest version (2010) is installed on your personal computer to submit your 2010 data. Once these electronic files are created please send these files by e-mail to ncr.gwprs@pwgsc.gc.ca. Alternatively, you can mail your electronic files on diskette to: PWGSC, 11 Laurier Street, Phase III Floor 14A2, Gatineau, Québec K1A 0S5, attention: Christiane Denis.

TBS publications

12. All TBS publications are available online via the TBS web site.

Enquiries

13. For information related to the "Standing Offer or Supply Arrangement Business Volume Report" please contact Christiane Denis of PWGSC at (819) 956-0950 or by fax at (819) 956-3730. For information on all other matters please contact Christiaan Shanahan of Treasury Board Secretariat at (613) 941-7182 or by fax at (613) 957-2405.

Elisa Mayhew
Executive Director
Acquired Services and Assets Sector

Distribution: TB06, TB07, TB21, T22, TB23, T23, T24, T161