Acquisitions Home

Note: The branch formerly known as Supply Operation Services Branch, SOSB, is now called the Acquisitions Branch. A process is underway to update documents, statements, web sites and other forms of communication.

Acquisitions Today

PWGSC Acquisitions Branch provides the Government of Canada with relevant and timely value-added acquisition and related common services. We are a primary service provider offering our client departments a broad base of procurement and purchasing solutions aimed at securing best value for taxpayer procurement dollar.

To deliver the best value procurement and purchasing services, we work as a strategic partner with our customers, by:

• Helping client departments define their requirements and select effective procurement approaches
• Managing the bidding process to find the best possible solution for sourcing client departments' needs
• Supporting client departments by closely overseeing customer/supplier relationships after contract award to ensure strong accountability until close-out of the contract

The Acquisitions Branch also provides auxiliary services and expertise such as market research to identify what products are available from suppliers; product planning; method-of-supply studies; maintenance of a statistical data base and reporting capability; policy framework development; policy review and promulgation; and the technological infrastructure to support the electronic procurement function. In addition, the Branch encompasses responsibility for all procurement-related aspects of Major Crown Projects.

The Way Forward, is a wide-ranging strategy led by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to find innovative ways to deliver services smarter, faster and at a reduced cost, and to improve how the Government of Canada does business. In December 2003, the Prime Minister gave a mandate to the Honourable Walt Lastewka to review how government procurement should be carried out. Over the next year a government-wide review of procurement was conducted and findings published in the Parliamentary Secretary's Task Force, Government-Wide Review of Procurement Final Report. All of the recommendations in the Final Report were accepted by the government. Implementing the recommendations will be key to the success of the Acquisitions Branch Way Forward initiatives.

There are two fundamental, interrelated objectives at the core of The Way Forward:

• Saving money by maximizing efficiencies, taking advantage of economies of scale and leveraging existing expertise; and
• Doing these things in an open, transparent way so as to preserve the confidence of Canadians in the integrity and fairness of the Government of Canada.

Our transformation agenda will mature over the next three years and will yield the following results, expected by March 2007:

• Cut the costs of goods and services by 10%;
• Reduce the time to process procurements by 50%; and
• Reduce the cost of purchasing by 10%.