Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today.
Thank you very much for being here.
I have a couple of questions, but first I want to thank you for the detail in your presentation in terms of the background to the contract to the contracts. It actually raises a couple of other questions about how those end up being awarded.
With regard to the famous disclosure about the maintenance being done, it came as a bit of a surprise to hear that the immediate reaction by the minister was to have an external auditor, as you mention at the end of your report. I personally was a bit surprised at that, because if there were some issues with the contract, my reaction would have been to have the people at Public Works look at them, as opposed to an immediate reaction to bring in somebody external and to spend more money on an additional audit.
It may be putting you on the spot, but can somebody explain to me why there isn't enough expertise or management within PWGSC, especially given your description? It sounds as though there is an awful lot of overview. Why would this not first go internally to have somebody make sure that the contract is being handled properly and in accordance with the contractual guidelines? Why would we all of a sudden need an external audit? Also, can you tell me what the external audit is going to cost?