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Public Accounts committee I have a couple of general observations to start with. First of all, when you appropriate funds, that represents an upper ceiling. So there's never really an expectation that it will be completely used. Departments are certainly not obligated to spend their entire appropriations,
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee In this case, essentially the way this type of expenditure would have been shown in the past was as an asset, essentially a prepaid expense. Now, under the Canadian public sector accounting standards, they have certain characteristics of what they would like to classify as an ass
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee Yes, using the tax system as a delivery mechanism....
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee It puts a cheque in the right hands.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee As I mentioned, that is my understanding of the reason behind the change in the standard. It is meant to better reflect the underlying nature of the transaction.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee I think it would have always been accurately computed. It's just really presentational. It's more visible this way and it groups like with like.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee Yes, to the extent that much of it is the interpretation of the numbers rather than the compilation. Their expertise is in that area.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee Yes, that would be an example.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee I think Ms. Cheng has indicated that first of all, there are.... In your first questions, you referenced performance audits. I think it's important to point out that this would not be classified as a performance audit. This is an audit of financial statements.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee Notwithstanding that, as we see in the observations attached to this, the Auditor General does make recommendations.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee So what we do inside a department when we receive an Auditor General's recommendation is.... First of all, they often point to a direction rather than specific action, so we have to translate that into some sort of specific action. We would make a plan. We would then execute the
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee Are you asking for a process in general? I thought your question was about a process in general. Now you're returning to one specific instance. So perhaps if you wish to know about one program—
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee All right, so the process in general, as I started to say—
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston
Public Accounts committee Certainly.
November 20th, 2013Committee meeting
Jim Ralston