Thank you.
Evidence of meeting #23 for Public Accounts in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mcphee.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #23 for Public Accounts in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mcphee.
A recording is available from Parliament.
7:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Thank you very much, Mr. Dreeshen.
That concludes the second round.
We'll now ask for any closing comments from either Mr. McPhee or Ms. Fraser.
Mr. McPhee, have you any closing comments to the committee?
7:10 p.m.
Auditor-General for Australia, Australian National Audit Office
First, thank you for inviting us to be part of your inquiry. It was an honour to be asked by the OAG to lead the international review team, and I'm very comfortable with the report that Australia and its international colleagues have produced here.
Having said that, the issues we have raised in this report are not unique to OAG. It's a message to all audit offices, including my own, about the importance of making sure we have the training and the follow-through to ensure that the systems we put in place are actually followed so that we can produce quality audits for the information of Parliament and the country.
Thank you very much, Chair and members.
7:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Thank you, Mr. McPhee.
Ms. Fraser, have you any closing comments you want to leave with the committee?
7:10 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Thank you, Chair.
First of all, I would like to thank the committee for their interest in this review and in this report.
You may be aware that there has been a sort of general agreement in the international audit community that we would conduct these peer reviews, and each office would contribute the time so that the office being reviewed paid only out-of-pocket expenses. If we had had to contract this review, it would have been very expensive.
I would very much like to thank Ian and all of his staff for what I hope they view as an investment in improving our practice. I know they've put in considerable work, the Australian audit office and the other audit offices as well.
I am confident that this report and this review will help us to become even better than we are and will provide you with the assurance that you can rely on the quality of our work.
My thanks to Ian and his colleagues.
7:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Thank you very much, Ms. Fraser.
On behalf of all members of this committee, and in fact all members of Parliament, I want to thank you again, Mr. McPhee, and your colleagues, Mr. Jarrett, Ms. Jackson, Mr. Jones, and the entire team.
I would also like to highlight the professionals from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway who worked on this international peer review.
I also want to thank you for getting up so early in the morning to be part of this meeting.
I think I would be remiss if I didn't thank the technical staff of the House of Commons. This meeting was done via video conferencing, and it would certainly have been done at a fraction of the cost of bringing witnesses from Australia. It went off without a hitch, so I do want to thank everyone involved in the organization and set-up of this meeting.
I understand the meeting was televised. I'm sure people found it very boring and the entertainment value was very minimal, but I do want to point out that this process is vitally important to the operation of Parliament.
In closing, I want to thank everyone involved.
The meeting is adjourned.