By Alessia Passafiume Indigenous Services Canada and other departments are failing to uphold their own Indigenous procurement strategy and may be allowing contractors to use shell companies to access contracts reserved for Indigenous businesses, says the federal procurement ombudsman. In a scathing new report released Thursday, Alexander Jeglic says Indigenous Services Canada failed to provide timely answers to procurement officers’ questions in some cases and allowed some contracts to go out to companies not listed in the Indigenous Business Directory. The report also cites a lack of oversight on contracts to ensure 33 per cent of the value of the work is done by an Indigenous contractor. “Non-Indigenous businesses may use Indigenous businesses as shell companies — entities that meet the minimum ownership requirement on paper but do not actually…
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