I mentioned in my testimony that I think the key thing to do is to require everyone to check with the Auditor General in advance when starting any significant spending process. The Auditor General could then do a quick check and say, wait a second, you've decided to do this as a sole-source, can you really prove that one of these huge loopholes, which should be closed, applies?
For example, there's one where sole-source contracting is allowed if it's in the public interest. Who decides that? That is just open to such abuse in terms of exercising discretion in defining what is in the “public interest”. In the case of WE Charity, it was if there's only one organization that is deemed by the public service, with possible political influence, to be the only organization that could actually administer whatever is to be done or provide whatever product or service.
Those loopholes need to be constrained and every government institution should have to check with the Auditor General to do a compliance check before they start the whole process. Then the Auditor General would be able to stop it, instead of reporting five years later that all the rules were broken. That's, I think, the best way to go. We have the watchdog in place. Give that watchdog the power to stop the spending and correct it before it happens.