2024 APM Q&A

Question

“I’ve heard about many public sector organizations having failed procurements or single bids—does this happen with DCC? How do you ensure that competitive bids come and that they are good value bids?”

Answer

In 2023–24, 97% of DCC’s procurement opportunities resulted in a contract, with an average of five bidders per procurement. Also, 99.6% of that year’s total awarded value of contracts resulted from competitive public opportunities.

DCC maintains rigorous procurement performance indicators to ensure fairness, best value, and public access.

• A minimum of 95% of DCC’s opportunities should result in a contact award: this target reinforces the imperative that DCC does not waste industry’s time with poorly prepared opportunities, which can lead to lack on interest and reduced competition.

• A minimum of four bidders should be obtained per procurement to ensure competitiveness and best value to the taxpayer: this indicator underlines how important it is for DCC to remain a knowledgeable and fair organization to work with, so that as many bidders as possible compete for DCC’s opportunities.

• A minimum of 98% of the total awarded value resulting from public opportunities: this indicator emphasizes DCC’s goals to support economic growth through open and equal opportunities to bid on contracts.

A key fact that enables these results—which exceeded DCC’s ambitious performance targets—is that DCC has had a more than 70-year relationship with both DND/CAF and the construction industry. DCC employees understand the specialised landscape they work in and are successful in meeting DND/CAF needs through its industry partners.

DCC engages industry early in project planning, prior to procurement, through public outreach sessions and engagement with infrastructure and environment associations. These opportunities are designed to give industry insight into upcoming work, allowing them to prepare high-value bids. At the same time, DCC employees are members and volunteers with these same associations at the national, provincial and local levels, which ensures employees are familiar with industry practices and the procurement-process challenges companies face.

DCC manages contractor performance to ensure value for taxpayer dollars and that contractors successfully deliver the required goods and services. DCC provides fair and useful written feedback to firms. This, in turn, helps contractors meet contract requirements, and any lessons learned may inform future procurements.