Lack of transparency in P.E.I. spending raises 'issues of trust and confidence,' expert says

The P.E.I. government is refusing to disclose basic information about some contracts the province awarded without going to tender, including what companies the province signed the contracts with.

This, as the province's auditor general and others call for increased transparency in how the P.E.I. government handles procurement that is, the process of spending taxpayer dollars on goods and services.

"When the government doesn't want to be transparent, it tends to start raising issues of trust and confidence: what are they trying to hide?" said LisePatry, a public procurement lawyer and instructor at The Procurement School, a Canadian training organization located in B.C.

"Unfortunately that's the byproduct of being non-transparent, especially with information that typically governments across Canada will share quite willingly."

$7K to obtain info

CBC News filed access to information requests with every government department for basic information on all untendered contracts worth $10,000 or more from the first term of the Dennis King government.

Initially only the Department of Social Development and Seniors provided records. The premier's office said it had no responsive records.

Every other department responded with bills to retrieve the information which altogether totalled more than $7,000.

CBC News pared down its request, seeking untendered contracts for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023 and eventually received information from nine of 11 government departments.

Of the 386 contracts disclosed to CBCNews, the names of the companies were withheld from 78 of them, or one in five. In some of those, the province also refused to say what the contract was for.

In all those cases the province cited a section of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which states information can be withheld if its release "could reasonably be expected" to compromise the security of computer systems.

'That's not good for the taxpayer'

Patry said she was "shocked" and that it was "highly, highly unusual" for any government to withhold the names of companies with which it did business.

She said transparency in government spending is meant to reassure taxpayers that rules are being followed, and without it, "what typically tends to happen is those heading governments tend to start favouring certain vendors.

"Sometimes it's people that have supported politicians, and all of a sudden what you find is an erosion of value, or paying too much for the services and goods. You're not getting the best value for money. That's not good for the taxpayer."

Rules hidden from public

Even if Islanders had access to government contract information, in many cases it would be impossible for them to see whether rules were being followed because some of those rules are not available for the public to see.

The law that lays out the rules for government purchasing on P.E.I. is the Procurement of Goods Act, and as the name suggests it only applies to goods, not services.

Green Party MLA Peter Bevan-Baker has raised objections, saying P.E.I. is the only province without a law that lays out how government should purchase services.

"Ultimately what we need is to know for sure that Islanders are getting value for money, the things that we procure, whether they are goods or services, that we're getting the best deal possible, that we are using the most appropriate person or entity to provide those goods and we have no idea whether that's the case."

No specific rule on when to tender

CBCNews obtained a copy of the province's Treasury Board manual through a previous access to information request. The province provided updated policies for this story.

Those policies suggest government contracts should use a competitive bid process, but specifically refrain from setting out rules for when a competition is required.

"Given the number of factors which can impact on a decision to follow a competitive or non-competitive process when selecting a contractor for a specific project, government has not prescribed when a competitive process must be used," the manual states.

"The principles of best quality and most economical cost should be tempered with the private sector being given a fair and reasonable opportunity to provide the product or service. It is expected that the decisions taken will stand up to public scrutiny."

The manual lays out some of the circumstances under which government might choose not to use a competitive process for a contract, including where only one firm is capable of doing the work, where the need is urgent, and where "due to the nature of the work, it would not be in the public interest to discuss the requirement with any other firm."

In its information requests, CBC News asked for information on why some contracts were not put out to tender.

Not all departments provided reasons.

The ones that did cited a range of reasons, the most common being that contracts provided core funding for groups with "longstanding service delivery" agreements with the province.

Changes coming, says finance minister

P.E.I.Finance MinisterJill Burridgesaid P.E.I.'s reporting around government spending "is not where it needs to be."

When asked to respond to Lise Patry's concerns around a lack of transparency eroding public trust and confidence, Burridge said "I couldn't agree with that more. I'm all for transparency. I think there's a big accountability piece to this as well."

Over the next year, Burridge said her department will be developing legislation to cover the procurement of services.

The Procurement of Goods Act was passed by the previous Liberal government of Wade MacLauchlan, but only came into effect in 2020, under the PCs.

Prior to that, the Public Purchasing Act also excluded the purchase of services from the legislation.

What the P.E.I. government won't reveal about its untendered spending

8 months ago

Duration 4:57

The P.E.I. government is refusing to disclose basic information about some contracts the province awarded without going to tender, including what companies the province signed the contracts with. As CBC's Kerry Campbell reports, that's prompted multiple calls for change, including from the province's auditor general.

Burridge, who's also the chair of the Treasury Board, said work is underway to modernize the language in the board's manual in advance of it being made available to the public.

"Our goal is June 30. So we hope to meet that and have that available for Islanders."

She said each department handles its own procurement and keeps its own financial records, and that a lack of conformity in how that's done might have been responsible for the steep fees requested from CBCNews to obtain contract details.

Burridge said the new procurement legislation could solve those problems.

In the meantime, she said her department is working on a plan to fulfil a basic commitment: to make information on tender awards available on the province's website.

"That's what I would consider a low hanging fruit piece that we can change and make readily available."

Be more like N.S., says auditor general

In his 2023 report, P.E.I.'s Auditor General Darren Noonan noted other provinces, including New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, share information with the public on procurement, including how much money each department spends with each specific vendor it used.

Noonan suggested doing the same "would enhance accountability and transparency" for the P.E.I. government.

"There's a big difference in the transparency in that [Nova Scotia] government versus this [P.E.I.] government," Noonan told CBC Newsin an interview.

"It's really hard to show transparency if you're not reporting anything, and then it's hard to hold people accountable if there's nothing to see."