Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance in regard to the vendor complaint policy. The first thing I would like to know, though, has to do with the procurement review. I am wondering if the Minister of Finance can confirm if the Procurement Review Panel plans to release a draft of its report to the business community prior to finalizing that? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been trying to be quite clear, both with the panel and publicly, that I think it's important that the panel have the opportunity and ability to do their work independently from my office, from government, and remain objective and remain creative and do what they need to do. I have not directed them to do that, and I have not heard back from them at present on whether they intend to do that. I'm sure, if the message doesn't get back to them through the course of this forum, then I can certainly make the inquiry on behalf of the MLA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate that, and I think it's important that the 19th Assembly get this right. I think spending the time to work with northern businesses to make sure we are getting it right is really important. One of the things that the Department of Finance has, one of the tools at its disposal, is the vendor complaint policy. It produces annual reports every year, and I'm guessing that the answer to my next question might be similar to the first. I am wondering if the Procurement Review Panel will be using those annual reports as part of their review or, if the Minister is unsure, if she will make them available to them.
I can say that, over the course of approximately six years, there were only 19 complaints, and in fact, this fiscal year thus far, there has only been one. I certainly will look to compile that information and provide it for the use and review of the panel. As for what they may do with it, obviously, that is certainly up to them. Again, we'll see where it goes, but certainly, we can compile that and provide it for their use.
I appreciate that. I can confirm, though it's great news to hear that there is one complaint this year, I receive a complaint probably every week about procurement from Kam Lake businesses. Whether they are escalated or not is another story. Sometimes, it's great news that things can be sorted out between conversations with MLAs and Ministers, and sometimes, they require a little bit more digging. I am wondering if the Minister would be willing to make the annual reports that go to the Comptroller General public so that, potentially, people can find patterns within those, if there is more than one that comes out every year and, also, hopefully in the future, they can drive change.
First of all, I had April 1st as the fiscal year in my head and said one complaint. It's three, not one; my apologies. Nonetheless, fortunately, not a significantly large increase. At present, there is not a report per se. Again, not having a very large number of complaints, I don't know that a report has been necessary to date. That said, they certainly do gather up all of the complaints. Procurement Shared Services does process those complaints. The Comptroller General does receive notice of the finalized complaints. They certainly are reviewed throughout the government, and the purpose of that review, the purpose of the complaint policy, is indeed to not only provide an avenue of complaint, but to in fact change processes.
I will certainly commit to go back and see what could be perhaps collated into a report that could be shared. I am conscious that the information contained in the complaints may well be something that is subject to some privacy, and I certainly do not want to put any damper on people using the complaint process. As I say, I will commit to speaking with the Comptroller General's Office and seeing what information we can put together so that there can be some transparency on the kinds of complaints we're receiving.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. No. I appreciate the Minister saying that. I definitely do not want there to be privacy concerns, and I don't want to deter anybody from reporting complaints because they do in fact offer opportunities for the government to maintain its procurement policies as living documents and to continue to make change. Even if it is identifying an industry type versus a specific person or company within an industry, I think that is a much better way of going about that. I am also wondering and I just want to confirm that the Minister is willing to also take back to her department the idea of adding recommendations that were made and what happened with those recommendations within those reports so that we can see what action was taken on the part of the GNWT and what change was made for local businesses. Thank you.
Again, Mr. Speaker, the policy right now allows individuals who have gone through the procurement process or who have considered applying on a procurement process to look there and to see whether they would be eligible to make their complaint. It would go through the client department that they are working with and then involve Procurement Shared Services and, if necessary, yes, of course, to the Comptroller General's Office. It's not a formal report per se that gets completed. At this point, in fact, my understanding is that the three that were dealt with were dealt with in a manner that did not require any kind of proposed change.
Now, again, all of which is to say, Mr. Speaker, I am very alive to the fact that the business community wanted to see change in procurement. We advanced. That was not only part of the mandate. We accelerated that, and the work is underway. I am very alive to the fact that there are concerns with the process, but right now, the vendor complaint process is not really a tool wherein people will necessarily find the recommendations they are looking for. Those recommendations are likely to come out of the procurement review process. To the extent that the vendor complaint process is not what people want it to be, then that, too, ought to be something that is mentioned to us in the course of the review. If we can improve the complaint process to make it more accessible so that there can be that kind of a living document, I am certainly happy to hear it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
