Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  The way the act is structured, we can revoke the appointment, but we cannot revoke the manager. If the appointment is incorrectly done, we can revoke the appointment. We have, and we do. This goes back to what my costs are: all the decisions of the Public Service Commission are subject to judicial review--and I'm in court quite a bit.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I can disclose that. I don't know the number right off the top of my head, but maybe I could come back to the committee and give you the numbers.

Government Operations committee  We know we have a problem at the senior level, in that they're not sufficiently represented. The high volumes in the numbers we have are below the executive level for all appointments. The number of the appointments at the executive level are running at six hundred a year, whereas below they're running at thousands and thousands and thousands.

Government Operations committee  We would like to do that, not for the annual report that's coming, because that's now being written, but for the one after that. Some things are obvious. There is a lack of understanding of how to fill in the applications. It's a technical process in government; government people say they require the following and they expect somebody to respond against each one of them.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  No, they're paid out of the whole. Of the 1,000, we have about 250 direct on the recruitment and assessment side. Then the systems side is in addition to that, because those are fully loaded costs.

Government Operations committee  We do it for the corporate programs. So there's the student program, as I was saying, the post-secondary recruitment, and we run the job system, the www.jobs.gc.ca system, which is for the whole government. The big change in what has occurred was under the previous legislation departments were obliged to come to the Public Service Commission, so it was obligatory; we had to do it.

Government Operations committee  Just to clarify a little bit, you have the executives. This tends to be your directors, your directors general, your assistant deputy ministers. Your deputies have a different classification. They're DMs. Deputies do not fall under the Public Service Commission, so we're not responsible for their staffing, but we're responsible for all the executives and down.

Government Operations committee  We have an unusual set of teeth, and that's what makes us unique. Unlike the Auditor General, whose role it is to audit and make reports, we are actually in the business of auditing and taking corrective measures. That's why in our reports to Parliament we have to say what we found, but also what we did.

Government Operations committee  That's a good question. Part of the $67 million on the recruitment and assessment services is for grouping these things together. That's a block of activities. A single piece in there is what we call the psychology assessment centre. These are the people who do the language testing, who do all the psychology assessment, do any of the special needs in assessing employees.

Government Operations committee  I would like to see an amendment to the Public Service Employment Act. I suggested it be done as part of Bill C-2, the Accountability Act, but since it didn't really deal with the Public Service Commission it was ruled out of order. So that wasn't a vehicle. I'm going to suggest it be put through miscellaneous amendments.

Government Operations committee  Yes, we have actually a specific charge under the Employment Equity Act to be responsible for removing barriers to employment in the public service. So we have been watching this fairly closely in terms of what kinds of barriers there are and what the numbers are looking like.

Government Operations committee  Okay, I'm relieved, because we've been there for 100 years being non-partisan, and we take that—

Government Operations committee  I'm a little puzzled by the explanation that you were given. Maybe we can follow up with your office and get some of the details, because that's not the way the program is to operate, and my understanding is that's not the way it operates. Students apply individually, so there's an application to this program.