Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, that question has many aspects to it. We'll probably share in answering the question. I think the first point I would make is that when it comes to vote 35, which was a separate vote in the main estimates to assist in moving the budget elements forward as quickly as we

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. I believe we're on page 12. I think we have to be realistic about some of the challenges we still face. Sustainability is key, as is the need to address not only the processes and systems that compromise the web of rules in a more immediate sense, but also the publ

Public Accounts committee  I really should allow the Auditor General to go first, but it's whatever works.

Public Accounts committee  We make sure that it's spent, I guess. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee for inviting us to appear before you today. My colleagues have been introduced. Thank you for doing that. If it pleases the committee, in lieu of an opening statement we will provi

Public Accounts committee  Is that how this is applied to small agencies? Will there be recommendations that the Auditor General makes to small agencies?

Public Accounts committee  Okay, if a recommendation is made to a small agency, or if the audit covers a small agency, and the small agency says “I recommend...”, are they required to develop an action plan?

Public Accounts committee  I'm just asking if you want this to apply to small agencies. They will then be required to develop an action plan, an additional report. I'm just asking the committee to consider that as part of its recommendations, because there will be recommendations that are specifically dire

Public Accounts committee  Members also have to be aware that we all have internal audit committees now that we have strengthened, and part of the role of the internal audit committee is that we report to them periodically on what we're doing. I'm just saying that overall we will follow through because thi

Public Accounts committee  We will add one more report to this number of reports that we need to produce.

Public Accounts committee  I think this has very much helped us move forward on some of the issues. They're very clear in the Auditor General's report, and I think we all agree that we do need to act on them. Hopefully we do feel we're making progress, and hopefully we will continue to make progress.

Public Accounts committee  If you look at what we've done over the past year, both in the area of HR reporting and the MAF—a large assessment of the performance of departments—we've said to the small, small, folks, those with 50 people and fewer, that you don't have to send us a report to do your assessmen

Public Accounts committee  I think it's a work in progress. We're not where we need to be. We're only getting through some of the pretty significant initiatives, but I think we have to go further before some of those agencies, particularly the smaller ones, can feel that they're maybe out from under the bu

Public Accounts committee  Yes. Again, I need to look at your recommendation. I'm just worried about the reporting burden we have, because now in each report we have to have a set of recommendations and an action plan. There's an action plan in the recommendations, so now we have to come forward with ano

Public Accounts committee  And now every department—and the small agencies too—is going to be required to submit an action plan to Parliament.

Public Accounts committee  I think it's where the focus of the questioning has been, the reporting burden. When you have two people in an office, or five people, can they be expected to do their job, to fulfill their mandate, and undertake the same level of reporting as the Department of Fisheries and Ocea