Contracting and Procurement

On November 4, Ron Hewitt, member of CAIDC's board, attended a Consultation session on Procurement hosted by CIDA held in Gatineau. Attached is a copy of the slides used at the meeting to explain the proposal and elaborate on its implementation. Ron's comments below: My overall impression was a positive one about CIDA's sincerity in reforming the domestic procurement rules. Their objective is to dramatically shorten the procurement process. The day of the meeting was the day that the Auditor General's report had come out, so they were sensitive to her criticism of the lengthy process. The procurement process identified in this material is not the only change they are contemplating. They did indicate some willingness in the future to consider a two stage process of pre-qualification, and a move to quality from price (for example moving from the 80/20 technical/financial split). Much to the delight of the engineers in the room, they seemed to point to an increase in infrastructure projects in the future. A major change that was not clearly identified in the template is that Reimbursables will be part of the Financial Proposal in the future, not the Technical Proposal. While they will not be marked or go toward the assessment of the financial bid, they are being put there to stop a practice that CIDA found inappropriate. Apparently some bidders were including local consultants' costs in the Reimbursables and not in the fee calculation. By moving Reimbursables to the Financial section, this will be stopped. Should someone put these costs into Reimbursables, they will be moved into the fees section. This is a good change it seems to me and will ensure a level playing field. CIDA considered all of the points raised in my memorandum and the additional points raised by Richard, as well as some new points raised by other participants in the session. They indicated that there is a backlog of proposals in branches awaiting approval, which should come quickly now that country strategies had been approved. We encouraged them not to flood the consulting market with these proposals as our ability to deal with a too many of them would affect the quality of the proposals in reply. We also encouraged the re-establishment of the CIDA pipeline so that we can plan ahead for proposals. Until that happens, we suggested that a reasonable period of time be provided for responses to new proposals. CIDA indicated that they were not concerned that there would be a flood of proposals released at once, since all had to go through a vetting process and legal review. This was somewhat disconcerting, as it appeared that this would once again slow down the process. CIDA also indicated that they might be establishing a central procurement function to standardize process and procedures. While this would have the advantage of providing much needed standardization, we cautioned that it might slow down the process if the new area was not adequately resourced. CIDA encouraged people to provide any additional comments to Patrick Duponsel at Patrick.duponsel@acdi-cida.gc.ca .

Link to Draft Applicants Guide: http://www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca/eng/document.jsp?did=97944

Investment Cooperation Program (INC)

On October 1, 2009, approvals were in place for the transfer and redesign of the Canadian International Development Agency's Industrial Cooperation Program (CIDA-INC). On January 4, 2010, subject to final Parliamentary financial authority, the renewed program is expected to become operational and administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). It will be renamed the Investment Cooperation Program (INC). Please see the June 3, 2009 News Release" announcing the planned transfer.

The CIDA-INC program will remain in operation at CIDA until the end of December 2009, although certain deadlines for new proposals have been established in order to manage the transition to DFAIT (see CIDA-INC website for more details ).

The DFAIT-INC program's objective is to support responsible, developmentally beneficial, private sector engagement in developing countries leading to sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. The program will achieve this by sharing some of the costs involved in studying the viability of an investment, demonstrating and adapting appropriate technologies, and undertaking activities aimed at enhancing the economic, environmental and social benefits of those investments. The Investment Cooperation Program (INC) is part of Canada's Official Development Assistance for developing countries.

More details on the program's re-design are available in the Draft Applicant's Guide and in the Frequently Asked Questions document. Please note that the Guide is provided for information purposes only.

Hi Pamela; With respect to the agenda, I would like to see two issues added to the agenda as general points of discussion of issues that might be included in the coming year's lobbying agenda with the federal government. 1. The first issue pertains to health care. The Canadian Government, as well as the Provinces, support a foreign policy which is designed to assist the least developed nations and emerging economies of the world...but it is not the Canadian government who actually goes overseas on long-term contracts to fulfill Canada's commitment to our partner nations and be a part of the matrix of services provided by the international development community. It's guys like me that go to the far away places for six-months or up to two years of time or longer to help these nations. The Canadian expats that work overseas always take much higher health risks than they would if they were staying home. The care that one can expect to receive in an African country (except for South Africa) comes nowhere close to what we can expect in Canada. The chance of injury and potential long-term illness are significant. In Southern Africa there are new strains of tuberculosis that are drug resistent. Treatment for a car accident is highly risky. Some, who are among this group of experts who work overseas, who are at the very height of their expertise are also ageing. I am such a person. I need to have my knees replaced. I would like to see CAIDC lobby the Canadian government for automatic, uninterrupted health coverage for every Canadian expat who is serving in international development overseas. The fact that I am a Canadian who is in the field, whether it is as a CIDA co-operant, working for the UN or World Bank, or another international development organisation like AUSAID, the minute I am back in Canada I should have full rights to health care. I can't afford to wait six-months to have it reinstated. I need to be able to arrange for crucial surgery like getting my knees replaced by seeing specialists at sometime while I am in Canada and then being able to return when the operation is scheduled. I frequently pay taxes which are the highest in the land because of the tax bracket I am in but do not get the benefit of protection. 2. I would like to see CAIDC enter into discussions with the Federal and Provincial Tax Authorities on several issues. The first one concerns expatriate specialists who take on assignments in high-risk countries, that would be deemed to be so by DFAIT. We need specialists to go to places like Afghanistan, Darfur in Sudan, Sri Lanka...as well as places where the health risks and the security risks are high. I just went for an interview for a job in Port Moresby, PNG. It was ranked as the most dangerous capital in the world after Baghdad. I think there should be special incentives that would permit those assignments as tax free. Taking a chance that you will get your ass shot off, or blown up, or injured or maimed for life is no small matter. Some places it is almost impossible to get insurance coverage. I think the Government of Canada should step in and provide full-insurance coverage for any country where it is impossible to get insurance or to cover the costs of such insurance. When the Canadian government bent over backward to help dual citizen Lebanese Canadians get out during the last Israeli-Lebanese war, I would like to think that they would devote as much or more attention to those individuals and I include the all military ranks and civilian staff, DFAIT and CIDA employees in this type of special coverage and tax-free status. It gauls me to have to fight with the tax authorities over foreign assignments and taxes, like the situation when I did an assignment in Sri Lanka. The International Tax Authorities deemed me to be non-resident, which meant I should have paid taxes in Sri Lanka...but which were waived because it was an ADB contract. Along comes the Quebec Provincial Government which says it doesn't have dual tax treaties with any other country and because I didn't pay taxes in Sri Lanka I owe them a big wack of money. I don't mind paying a reasonable amount of tax but there needs to be a great deal more flexibility. I have to go to all the trouble of putting my house up for rent, moving my stuff into storage, paying insurance on this or shipping it overseas. The administration and tax headaches are a nightmare. I think people who work in international development should be treated differently because they end up giving up a lot to do this work overseas. I bet if you were to look at the rate of divorce, health issues, interruptions for work suspended as happened to me this year, outbreaks of conflict and the like, robery and personal threats of violence in some countries like Kenya and South Africa and PNG that should be recognised. The government gives major tax benefits to people who invest in Labour Funds which support business growth in this country. The only thing those people are risking are their hard earned dollars to get a tax reduction with the possibility that those investments will provide them with a significant return. They are not putting their lives on the line. Whether the Canadian government would be willing to support this policy for DFAIT, CIDA staff and expatriate experts or not...at the very least I think they should be providing tax relief to the soldiers and people working in places like Khandahar. The rank and file of the Canadian military are the people who are putting their lives on the line as well as the happiness of their families. We as a country should be recognising that kind of sacrifice. Well there you have the gist of what I would like added to the lobbying/policy agenda for 2008. Thanks amigo. William