Government Operations committee  That's the study to March 31, which includes the report's findings.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question, madam. I started my term two years ago. When I arrived at the Office of the Comptroller General, I had a group of approximately 65 or 70 individuals. I put in place a plan to restore the group to the size it was in 1993, that is more than 200 persons.

Government Operations committee  The example of that $2 billion is one I use with my colleagues very often to try to crystallize the issue here. It's in the books. We record it in the books as a statutory liability of the Government of Canada; however, as the Auditor General mentioned, the money to pay for it has not been allocated, because it's a decision of our parliamentarians to say this year we have $10 million for this, or $10 million for Afghanistan.

Government Operations committee  As my colleague, Mr. Moloney, said, there are essentially only three or four countries that do appropriations on an accrual basis. For everybody else, including our American friends, it's on a cash basis. Their financial reporting is on accrual, but the appropriations are in cash.

Government Operations committee  I asked my New Zealand colleagues how much time it had taken for them to put their accrual-based accounting system in place. They answered that it had taken them 15 years to successfully change attitudes. In fact, it's a bit like switching from the imperial system of measurement to the metric system.

Government Operations committee  There's no question it is. The compensation is an issue not only in terms of attracting the right people with the right skills, but also in terms of repositioning the financial officers in the senior management cadre of departments. Coming from the private sector, normally the CFO will be number two, number three, number four in the organization.

Government Operations committee  The Parliament is supreme.

Government Operations committee  Again, I'm very much unbiased, but to make sure our senior financial officers have a professional designation doesn't mean it's very popular by asking for it, but I've been pushing for it and I'll keep pushing for it. I'm also reminded that last year--and it's not helping my case, but let's be very candid--the CFO of the year in Canada was an MBA who didn't have his professional certification.

Government Operations committee  Yes, to a large extent that is correct. In the books of the Government of Canada we have statutory appropriation. The expense is recorded--again, the statutory appropriations enable us to book it in the financial statement--but there's no authority yet to pay the amount. It is for Parliament to make that decision in the budget.

Government Operations committee  It really depends on the various votes or various decisions. When there's a program that is approved, a multi-year program, the funds are voted year by year. That's what I'm coming back to, the comment made by the former chair, when he said, “Mr. St-Jean, we vote money year by year”.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the directives from this committee on that point. It will help us shape our thinking in recommendations to the government. I really want to reiterate a point. One of the fundamental issues I'm trying to wrestle with is how to respect the will of Parliament.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for your question. Personally, I will declare that I am biased in favour of the accrual basis of appropriation. There is no question about it. But I also remember that in one of my first discussions with the former chair of the public accounts committee, I told him that if we are moving to the accrual basis of appropriation, that probably means we will have to move to multi-year appropriation.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I take seriously the findings of the Auditor General in chapter 1 of her report, which is entitled “Managing Government Financial Information”. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the chapter with the standing committee.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. In concluding, may I say this is a very serious matter, as has been mentioned before. We have to do our very best to make sure that we do report to Parliament in a full, fair, and complete manner. The lesson has been learned from this experience in terms of how we will deal with that kind of issue in the future.

Public Accounts committee  I wasn't there.