Our office has done a number of practice reviews, and generally we have found that the systems, processes, and practices are aimed at promoting fairness, openness, and transparency. Of those practice reviews, though, we have looked at specific areas and we have made recommendations that could foster improvement.
I'll use as an example--and relate it to some of the discussion that's going on here this morning--a practice review that the office conducted on oversight in government departments. This was one of the practice reviews that we conducted in the first year, and we chose to go into nine departments, I believe it was, to see how they manage oversight and whether or not they have an oversight committee looking at the contracts they're awarding. Again, I would invite you to read it. It's on our website.
We found there that oversight committees do exist. We made some recommendations for improving those oversight committees--in particular, ensuring that contracts that are of high dollar value or create more risk for the particular government department be presented to those oversight committees so that an appropriate challenge function could occur.