The Auditor General of Québec issues the conclusions of her performance audit concerning the procurement process for specialized services and other work at Hydro-Québec - Press Release no. 4

QUÉBEC, Nov. 23, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, Ms. Guylaine Leclerc makes public the Fall 2016 Volume of the Report of the Auditor General of Québec to the National Assembly for 2016‑2017. In Chapter 4, she makes known the results of her audit carried out at Hydro-Québec.

Hydro-Québec has a procurement process for specialized services and other work that is generally aligned with good practices and in accordance with the regulations. Moreover, the number of tenders received is satisfactory when Hydro-Québec launches competitive bidding processes. However, improvements are needed at certain steps of the process.

Strategic procurement is in the process of being implemented. For example, for 2 of the 12 files analyzed that pertained to specialized services and other work, the needs could have been grouped together to generate savings.

The procedure leading to the qualification of suppliers should be more formalized. Hydro-Québec does not perform any controls to ensure that qualified suppliers continue to meet the qualification requirements over time.

Differences of more than 15% were observed between the estimated value of the acquisition and the lowest tender in 54% of cases. Although the value of acquisitions is estimated, Hydro-Québec should refine the cost estimate of certain acquisitions, particularly those with a significant value or impact, in order to make it easier to assess the accuracy of the prices tendered.

Proposals received electronically are opened for validation and classification purposes before the date and time set. Their contents could have been consulted.

For the contracts analyzed, Hydro-Québec does not perform all the verifications required by the regulations. Furthermore, it is unclear how the clauses on tender conformity are applied.

Hydro-Québec includes standardized clauses in its contracts that may not apply to all situations. Moreover, for the acquisition files analyzed, certain contractual clauses have not been applied in a consistent manner.

The Highlights are available at www.vgq.qc.ca. The full report and a video summarizing the audit are available only in French.

Source:

Lucie Roy, Director of Communications Auditor General of Québec Tel.: [phone]

SOURCE Vérificateur Général du Québec

Lucie Roy, Director of Communications, Auditor General of Québec, Tel.: [phone]