I would like to call the meeting to order and extend to everyone here a very warm welcome.
Colleagues, today we're dealing with chapter 1, “Safeguarding Government Information and Assets in Contracting”, of the October 2007 report of the Auditor General of Canada.
We are very pleased to have before the committee today, from the Office of the Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General. She's accompanied by Hugh McRoberts, Assistant Auditor General; and Bruce Sloan, principal.
We do have a number of witnesses from the Department of National Defence. First of all, we have the deputy minister and accounting officer, Mr. Robert Fonberg. Then we have back again Lieutenant-General Walter Natynczyk, Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff; Scott Stevenson, assistant deputy minister, infrastructure and environment; Dan Ross, assistant deputy minister, materiel; Major-General Glynn Hines, chief of staff; Colonel Michael Day, commander, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command; and Lieutenant-Colonel David Shuster, director, deputy provost marshall security.
From Defence Construction Canada, we have Mr. Ross Nicholls, president and chief executive officer.
Again, I want to extend to each one of you a very warm welcome.
Before I call upon the Auditor General for her opening remarks, I do want to introduce to the members of the committee and the witnesses some very special guests in the room today. We're very pleased to have a delegation from Uganda, including three members of their public accounts committee.
We have the chair of the Ugandan public accounts committee, the Honourable Nandala Mafaabi. He is accompanied by two other members of the committee, Mr. Albert Odumon and Mrs. Margaret Kiboyijana. And with them, we have the clerk of the committee, Mr. Sam Emiku; the High Commissioner, Mr. George Abola; the director of administration and finance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samuel Kakula; the principal assistant of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Lubega Yakub; and also Mr. Berti Kawooya from the High Commission.
So on behalf of the committee and all members, I want to extend to you, the visiting Ugandan delegation, a very warm welcome.