Question Period Note: Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance

The Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance supports the Government’s ability to identify suppliers of concern and take appropriate action to mitigate the risk they pose.

• The Government of Canada is committed to taking action against improper and unethical business practices, and to holding companies accountable for their misconduct while safeguarding federal expenditures
• When the new Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance was established in May 2024, a revised Ineligibility and Suspension Policy came into effect
• The new office improves the government’s ability to respond to emerging risks of misconduct and fraud while protecting the integrity of the federal procurement and real property systems
• Public Services and Procurement Canada is developing and deploying increased data analytics tools to detect fraudulent schemes and other types of wrongdoing

The Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance replaces the Government of Canada’s Integrity Regime which was in place since 2015 as a government-wide policy-based debarment system designed to further protect the integrity of federal contracts and real property transactions.

The new Office will continue to play a significant role in safeguarding the federal procurement and real property systems, which encompasses approximately $20 billion annually for procurement contracts, real property agreements, the management of Crown-owned properties, and rental payments on 1,690 lease contracts across Canada.

The new Office provides an opportunity to modernize the Government of Canada’s debarment and suspension program and further strengthen its use of data analytics to identify potential instances of fraud and wrongdoing and better leverage intelligence relevant to assessing the integrity of vendors within government contracts and real property agreements.

Under the new Policy, triggers for suspension or debarment include:

• offences under the Criminal Code, the Financial Administration Act
• Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, the Canada Elections Act
• civil judgments and similar offences that occur in other jurisdictions
• a debarment by another jurisdiction or an international organization
• founded breaches of the Code of Conduct for Procurement
• misconduct related human trafficking, forced labour, environmental violations, and labour code
• an assessment that shows the supplier violated the integrity of the procurement process, even in situations where there are no criminal charges or convictions

The Office actively monitors current events for allegations of supplier misconduct through research, information sharing, and data analytics. OSIC exercises due diligence in assessing potential suppliers and takes action when the Policy is triggered.

In addition, departments and agencies are encouraged come forward with their concerns about potential wrongdoings or misconduct and to refer this situations to OSIC. Even if departments do not report issues, OSIC can self-initiate assessments if they become aware of issues. Departments also have the ability to refer cases to law enforcement directly if they suspect elements of criminality within their procurements, such as fraud.

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