Apart from these committees and the staff who work on the estimates, the estimates and the explanatory notes of the departments are subjected to scrutiny by a large number of other people and bodies.
There is a public accounts committee, a joint committee on public accounts, which does the technical scrutiny of public accounts and reports regularly on them. They are assisted by the Auditor General, who audits the public accounts and does performance audits that look particularly at the performance of departments.
The Auditor General and the reports of his office are available to the estimates hearings and the senators in the estimates hearings. Audit reports provide one basis for questioning at estimates hearings.
There is a good deal of focus on the performance of departments and the effectiveness of programs.