Mr. Chairman, it is true that there are rules. I would even say that there are many rules. One may even think that there are too many of them. Perhaps we should come back to principles of sound management instead of creating more rules.
Long ago, we did an audit, before the legislation on human resource management was changed. At the time, we discovered that there were 70,000 rules for managing human resources in the federal government. When there are too many rules, they become irrelevant, and people can no longer tell essentials apart from non-essentials.
The sponsorship file is a concrete example of a profound lack of respect for sound principles of management and for existing rules. Several things indicate that there were problems. Internal audits had been carried out, but there was not enough follow-up to ensure that the problems that had been identified were dealt with and solved.
Certain measures in the bill, for instance the obligation of setting up an audit committee, could make the system a bit more stringent.
As far as we are concerned, our extended mandate only deals with subsidies, contributions and loans. The sponsorship file had to do with contracts. Consequently, the extended mandate we now have would not apply to contracts or sponsorship.