Thank you. I am advised, Mr. Ootes, that the Chair does not assure any Member. If the Minister wishes to answer that, it is entirely up to the Minister. I will try to be fair to every Member as we go through the summary on this particular activity. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have the opportunity of answering all the questions on Lahm Ridge Tower and all the questions on the Yellowknife office plan, be it under asset management, if that

is where it belongs.

Thank you. Do we agree?

Agreed.

Thank you. Directorate, total operations and maintenance, $8.839 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the deputy minister if he could provide some details on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last year the Legislature asked for clarification on a variety of issues. One of the areas that was of concern was negotiated contracts. As a result of that concern, a draft negotiated contracts policy was developed and submitted to the standing committees for their consideration. We have not taken any further steps on that until we get feedback from the standing committee. With regard to request for proposals, I am not currently doing any work in that area. The department did develop an information brochure that was circulated to MLAs in February, 1997, outlining the methodology the department uses to award contracts through a competitive process, as well as the alternatives which are available in a non-competitive methodology, either sole-sourced contracts or negotiated contracts. The government contracting regulations contain the details which guide us in our utilization of the tendering process or utilizing requests for proposals. At this point, I am not doing any further work on it because our view in Public Works is that there is sufficient information in the contracting regulations for that process to be clear. The department gave direction to its superintendents last year to provide consistent and standard information to proponents who were unsuccessful in their bids when they submitted proposals through requests for proposals. We have been following a practice of providing fairly standard information to contractors so they are aware of their success, the reasons for their success or their lack of success in a particular bid. Other than that, I am not working on any other procedures. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the deputy minister to provide some details. Thank you.

Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, the superintendents, regardless of the department they work for, all are required to sign an oath of office and secrecy which requires them to fulfil their responsibilities in an ethical way and to keep information confidential that is associated with their business when it is appropriate to do so. They sign a job offer which outlines their terms and conditions of employment. The job description for the position is attached to that job offer. It provides them with their terms of reference and greater detail on their day to day responsibilities. Every superintendent, when they are appointed to their jobs, also signs a financial signing authority spreadsheet similar to the one that was circulated for the deputy minister. The deputy minister delegates the authority wherever it is appropriate to the superintendent. The superintendent provides a specimen signing sheet showing the signature associated with the signing authority.

In addition to that, the superintendents are limited by the provisions of existing contractual arrangements or leases. They cannot terminate a lease other than in a lawful manner. They are bound by the restrictions of their budget in terms of the amount they can spend in each activity. There is only a certain amount of flexibility they have been given, as much as, their budget is tied up in contracts and leases. They are required to conform to government policy in all areas, whether it is associated with the management of their human resources, policies such as recruitment of staff, the affirmative action policy, those sorts of things.

In the specific department of Public Works and Services, we have a variety of policies that superintendents and managers must conform to. For example, they cannot negotiate a contract because that is not within the prerogative of a superintendent or even a deputy minister. That is the prerogative of Cabinet or the Financial Management Board. They are required to conform to policies such as the leasing of improved real property policy, the disposal of real property, the government contracting regulations and the restrictions that are outlined in the Financial Administration Manual. Their expenditures are monitored on a weekly basis. We are able to pull off financial reports weekly to check to determine whether or not our expenditures are consistent with the commitments that have been made. There are checks and balances within the system to ensure unauthorized and exorbitant expenditures are not occurring. Although all managers have the signing authority, the responsibility and the authority that they need to do their jobs, there is a fairly strict set of guidelines and rules that they are all bound by and which they are all made aware of as part of their initial orientation and their ongoing training. Thank you.

Thank you. Directorate, total operations and maintenance. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Deputy Minister, Mr. Ken Lovely.

Mr. Chairman, the superintendent does have the authority to enter into leases and make commitments so long as those leases have gone through an accepted process. The only authority a superintendent has to enter into a lease is if he has entered into that lease through a competitive process whether it is a call for proposals or a tender call. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.