quebec watchdog orders chum to nix plan to award contract to tech firm without competition

quebec's public contracts watchdog has ordered the centre hospitalier de l’université de montréal (chum) to backtrack on awarding a technology contract directly to a firm without allowing anyone else to bid on it.in a decision published on june 1, the autorité des marchés publics (amp) concluded that the chum was unable to demonstrate that it was justified in invoking an exception to the rule of holding a call for tenders to award large public contracts when it decided to acquire a new cloud-based solution to manage work schedules and communication between health-care professionals at the hospital."the amp concludes that the chum has failed to demonstrate that a call for tenders would not serve the public interest and that it is therefore necessary to invoke the exception of awarding a contract by mutual agreement," the watchdog agency says in a report signed by its president and ceo, yves trudel.the hospital will have to launch a public call for tenders if it wants to award the contract, the decision states.the chum has co-operated with the amp investigation and will abide by its decision, a spokesperson for the hospital said."the chum acknowledges the decision of the autorité des marchés publics," spokesperson ellen caracas said in an email. the amp, she added, "can count on our full co-operation."in march, the chum posted a notice of intent on the provincial government's public-tendering website indicating that it planned to award a two-year contract with two one-year renewal options directly to quebec-based firm petal solutions inc. through one-on-one negotiations.another firm, not identified in the amp report, responded to the notice with a formal expression of interest indicating that it was capable of meeting the chum's needs. however, the chum rejected the offer, arguing, among other things, that the firm didn't demonstrate "clearly," "adequately" and "convincingly" that it complied with elements of the notice of intent. the firm filed a complaint about the process with the amp before it received the rejection, the report notes.the amp concluded the chum wasn't justified in rejecting the firm's offer."contrary to the reasons for rejection cited by the chum, the interested company provided all the documents required in the notice of intent, explained how it met the approximately 200 required technical criteria, and submitted a video demonstration of its platform," the report says."the amp concludes that the company demonstrated, in a serious and reasonable manner, its ability to carry out the contract according to the needs and obligations expressed by the chum. furthermore, the company provided a financial framework that complied with the requirements of the notice of intent." the chum had justified directly negotiating a contract with petal solutions because it wanted to continue using the same technological solution it has had for five years. the chum estimated that changing technologies would cost it $950,000 to $1.26 million in training and other costs and argued it would have "significant impacts on operations, the management of health-care professionals' schedules and the continuity of services," the amp report says.however, the amp rejected the chum's explanation, noting that quebec's public procurement law allows a public body to consider additional costs on top of a submitted price to come up with the most advantageous bid. "a public body cannot repeatedly award negotiated contracts to the same supplier ... simply by asserting that any change in an it system inherently entails risks," the amp report says."such a premise, formulated in a general and abstract manner, would effectively exempt the information technology sector from any competitive bidding process as soon as a competitor is already established within a public body. this would deprive public bodies of the benefits ... of transparency, fairness, innovation and sound management of public funds."the chum contract remained suspended as of wednesday."at petal, we adhere to diligent and rigorous procurement processes that guarantee transparency, fairness and sound management of public funds," company executive vice-president cindy carvalho said in an email."in this specific case, we await further information on the next steps and hope that the suspension of the process will not impact the continuity of services for health-care professionals and their patients."in 2020, the company was awarded an $18-million contract without competitive bidding by then-premier françois legault's coalition avenir québec government to provide an appointment-booking system connecting patients without a family doctor to medical clinics with available appointments. businessman charles sirois, a co-founder of the caq, owned a five per cent stake in petal at the time of the contract, le journal de montréal reported in 2021.the quebec ethics commissioner concluded the government had not violated the code of ethics and had not unfairly favoured the company, le journal said.radio-canada recently revealed that the cost of the appointment-booking system has ballooned because the government, notably the health department, has ordered multiple changes and addenda.then, in what the news outlet described as a surprise move, santé québec awarded a contract in december to quebec-based cgi to recreate the booking system from scratch because santé québec wants to own the technology rather than pay for licences.lgyulai@postmedia.com