Tag: Contract

Two of the three companies that competed for a federal contract to deliver job placement services for Canada's veterans were disqualified for "not having sufficient experience" — even though one of them was doing the work already for Veterans Affairs, CBC News has learned. For over a year, officials at Agilec have refused repeated interview requests and directed all inquiries from CBC News to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was rebranded weeks after the 2015 federal election and held a series of contracts with the Ontario government. Provincial public accounts records show the company received at least $14.3 million in two separate contracts from two different departments in its last year operating as Northern Lights Canada. Wellstead said the company has not had "any issues providing services to veterans and their spouses." The two companies that lost the federal bid were the non-profit charity Canada Company and Maxsys Staffing and Consulting, which is headquartered in Montreal. Sources with knowledge of the file, who were granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the procurement process, said the federal government didn't examine the costing proposals from either Canada Company or Maxsys before rejecting their bids. The federal government appeared to be solidly behind the charity and invested $1.1 million in the group's online MetPathfinder system one year before the contract went to Agilec. At first, Public Services and Procurement Canada would not comment on the tender evaluations, but after repeated questions, a department spokesman confirmed the bids were rejected and suggested there were good reasons. So this is an important contract.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is refusing to release an $850,000 contract Republican lawmakers drew up with a law firm to help them defend legal challenges to legislative district boundaries. Citing attorney-client privilege, Vos spokeswoman Kit Beyer refused to release the contract to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the denial Monday. Assembly Republicans had hired the Chicago-based law firm Bartlit Beck to help defend the GOP-drawn boundaries in a long-running federal lawsuit. Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel had been representing the state in the case but lost in the Nov. 6 elections to Democrat Josh Kaul. Now both Kaul and the Bartlit Beck attorneys will defend the maps. Wisconsin Freedom of Information President Bill Lueders said he believed the denial of the newspaper’s request is illegal. Vos’ refusal to release the contract comes as a longstanding legal battle over the state’s redistricting plan looks poised to begin another chapter. A panel of federal judges ruled in 2016 that the state’s redistricting map was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and ordered new districts to be drawn in time for the 2018 election. But the U.S. Supreme Court changed gears in June, putting the order on hold after finding a group of Democratic voters who were plaintiffs in the case lacked standing to sue.

* Italy bond selloff not just about politics - Italy debt official * Contagion from Italy limited - Portugal debt chief * ECB tapering no problem - issuers (Updates throughout) By Abhinav Ramnarayan and Dhara Ranasinghe LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Recent sharp volatility in short-dated Italian government bonds was partly due to technical factors in addition to political concerns, a senior official at the Italian government debt agency said on Tuesday. Italian bond markets in May experienced some of their biggest swings in several years as an anti-establishment coalition took shape in Rome. But some technical factors such as the reduced capacity of primary dealers to trade government bonds also contributed to market volatility, Davide Iacovoni, director general, Public Debt Directorate at Italy’s Department of Treasury said at a conference in London. “We have the feeling that the magnitude of the swings is not only attributable to political events but to technical changes in the market as well,” he said a Euromoney conference. He also said that a lack of liquidity in the BTP bond futures market impacted trading in cash bonds. Also speaking at the conference, the Portuguese debt management agency’s chairwoman and chief executive Cristina Casalinho said the contagion from events such as the recent Italy selloff seems to have subsided compared with the height of the euro zone debt crisis. They said that ECB tapering had been well anticipated by markets and that reinvestments from maturing bonds would continue to support bonds well after monthly asset purchases end. The bank also signaled that any interest rate hike remains some way off. Portugal’s Casalinho meanwhile added that effective ECB communication also helped from an issuer’s perspective. “What’s really relevant is good communication and so far the ECB has a good track record on that front,” she told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.