The procurement process is not broken per se, it is just hijacked - by the Harper government. This is likely another case of Harper telling the experts of that department what they need and not let them pick the best vendor/product during the tender process.
When the tender process becomes purely political and government departments are told what to buy and who to buy it from as oppose to letting the people that will actually use it choose - this is what you get.
There was always a little bit of political interference in the past, especially for big ticket items, but not to the level it is now with Harper.
Harper is desperate right now to scrape pennies together to try and say he has a "balanced budget" before the election. He would rather waste 10s of millions on penalties and potentially endanger the lives of the men and women that serve in the military that he is always happy to get a photo op with - just to not spend money he already committed to spending in order to get his "balanced budget".
The procurement process is not broken per se, it is just hijacked - by the Harper government. This is likely another case of Harper telling the experts of that department what they need and not let them pick the best vendor/product during the tender process.
When the tender process becomes purely political and government departments are told what to buy and who to buy it from as oppose to letting the people that will actually use it choose - this is what you get.
There was always a little bit of political interference in the past, especially for big ticket items, but not to the level it is now with Harper.
Harper is desperate right now to scrape pennies together to try and say he has a "balanced budget" before the election. He would rather waste 10s of millions on penalties and potentially endanger the lives of the men and women that serve in the military that he is always happy to get a photo op with - just to not spend money he already committed to spending in order to get his "balanced budget".