Thank you, Chair.
In the past we have had two peer reviews done. One was completed in 1999-2000 on our financial audit practice, and the other one, in 2004, was on the performance audit practice. I thought it important that we have a peer review of all of our practices, not specific practices.
I also wanted to have the peer review done before the end of my term. I thought it was important that a new Auditor General coming in not have the responsibility of conducting a peer review right away. The issues we have to deal with are known now, and hopefully that Auditor General, before the end of his or her term, will also do a similar peer review to assess the state of affairs of the office.
So yes, to me it was very important that we do this. Especially in a time with a lot of change going on in the office, it was important to us to have that independent objective assessment of where we needed to improve and how we could make our practice better.