As I was saying, the auditor has looked at a random sample of contracts—72—and 26% of them did not comply with the Financial Administration Act. Over a quarter of the contracts that were sampled just didn't comply with the law as it relates to contracting.
This is a massive problem and clearly a systematic problem. If there's a systematic problem in a department and we let ministers repeatedly get away with saying “Oh, well, those decisions are being made by other people”.... The minister is responsible for administering the department, and if there's a systematic problem, the minister needs to take responsibility for that problem, and for taking action to resolve that problem.
The Liberals just don't believe that they're accountable when things go wrong inside the government. We're not talking about a case of one or two bad apples; we're not talking about a junior public servant who, by themselves, independently broke a rule. We're talking about a systematic issue where over a quarter of contracts in the foreign affairs department do not follow the law. That's a situation where leadership is required and where leadership has to take responsibility, and as a parliamentary committee, yes, we should seek responses from those responsible for leading the department.
That said, I am interested in trying to meet Mr. Jowhari in the middle with his proposal. I'd like to move an amendment to the motion to say, “That the committee call the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, the Minister of International Development and the Minister of Trade to each appear for a two-hour meeting, and the deputy minister responsible for the report to appear for two hours.”
I think it reads fine from there. It is simply to add in the Minister of International Development and the Minister of Trade.
Hopefully that is an acceptable compromise for Mr. Jowhari, and we'll be able to proceed with that accountability.