Public Accounts committee  Let me start by saying how much we have enjoyed working with Mr. Williams as chair of the committee over many years. While he may not have had his eight minutes in the rounds, it always seemed to me that the chair always managed to ask a few questions anyway.

Public Accounts committee  We haven't, obviously, done any work recently on how well that whole initiative is going. There was always the function of Comptroller General, but it was combined with the Treasury Board Secretariat, so there wasn't a separation of those two responsibilities. We were supportive of separating it and thought that with all the changes that were coming, be it to financial reporting, the focus on internal audit, and all the rest of it, it was good that there be a separate function established for that.

Public Accounts committee  Very much so. And we have said that in fact Canada has been a world leader in its financial reporting. Canada was one of the first countries.... Only a handful of countries actually, have adopted what we call full accrual accounting, having all the assets recorded and all the liabilities.

Public Accounts committee  I can assure you today that the leak did not come from my office. I'm absolutely convinced of that. We handle 30-some reports a year. At times some are more sensitive than others, and my staff takes great care to ensure that all the procedures around the confidentiality of reports are respected.

Public Accounts committee  In the course of preparing our audit reports, we do have many discussions and exchanges of draft documents and reports with the departments or agencies we're auditing. It is absolutely critical to our process to do that, because we have to ensure that the facts, as we are stating them, are correct.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, what our mandate might or might not be is really a question for Parliament to decide. I don't have a comment.

Public Accounts committee  First of all, let me thank Mr. Christopherson for his kind words. I do very much appreciate the comments, and I also appreciate the important role this committee has in holding us to account. We try to ensure that we are accountable through various other procedures. We have the reviews that are conducted of the office, and all the rest of it.

Public Accounts committee  The problem was to some extent more acute in the past, I think, when departments didn't have a carry-forward provision. Now if a department doesn't spend all of its budget, it is allowed to carry forward 5% to the next year. I think that has helped to some degree. Some of the major issues we raised in the past involved very large sums of money that had been transferred, for example, to foundations very close to year-end.

Public Accounts committee  I'm well aware of those critics. The line item that we have here, the financial audit, is the audit of the financial statements. It's to give an opinion on the financial statements, be it a crown corporation or a government. In performance audits there are many audits that one could sort of call financial audits, such as audits of contracting.

Public Accounts committee  We researched at length the approach taken by countries with the Westminster model of governance, such as as Britain, Australia and New Zealand. As I recall, we did make a presentation on this very subject to the committee. However, we would be pleased to make another one. We looked to systems in place in other countries for some inspiration.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, could I ask that this question be deferred for one week? We'll be tabling a status report on Tuesday. In the report we've done a follow-up on all of the recommendations we made between 2000 and 2003, so 37 recommendations. I'll be able to answer with much more detail after Tuesday's tabling.

Public Accounts committee  I think I have to address the premise of the question. It is absolutely critical that the Auditor General be able to decide the work of his or her office. We cannot be directed by government.

Public Accounts committee  If committees of parliamentarians signal concerns to us, we will certainly try to do our best to accommodate that issue. In fact, we recently wrote a letter to the committee indicating that there had been a resolution asking us to audit a relocation program, and we have undertaken that audit and will be reporting it in the fall.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have long been critical of the way in which the budget of the Auditor General's office is determined. Like all other federal government departments and agencies, the Office of the Auditor General was required to negotiate its budget with the Treasury Board Secretariat.

Public Accounts committee  First of all, regarding the management of grants and contributions, perhaps we could defer the question, because in our report that is coming next week we have done a follow-up audit on the management of grants and contributions programs, and you will see the conclusion we have as to whether there are sufficient management procedures in place.