We have the ability to go back to do another audit in the same area. It's what we refer to as a follow-up audit. We'll go back to look at the recommendations we've made and see whether the departments have implemented them. We haven't done that yet on the audit on controlling exports at the border. We don't do it on all audits.
The problem is that it takes some time. We need to give the departments two to three years to implement the recommendations; then we have to start and plan another audit, execute the audit, and report it. By the time we've gone through that, another 18 months have passed. It's often four to five years at the soonest before we come back with another audit.
The department has put in place an action plan. I'm just looking at the action plan they presented to the public accounts committee. There are a number of things noted here for September 2018, June 2018, December 2019, March 2019; that's on the audit on customs duties. Those dates are in the future.
Part of what the public accounts committee and this committee can do is have the department in to ask whether they are on track, such that when a follow-up audit is done later on sometime in the future, it will show that they have dealt with all of the issues they said they were going to deal with. That would really be a useful part of the process, making sure that the departments understand that there is a real expectation that they will actually do something to deal with the recommendations.
We're not asking them necessarily to implement our recommendations exactly as we've put them. What we're asking them to do is show that whatever changes or improvements they make will mean they won't have the same problem in the future. There are many ways this can be done. I think it is useful for this committee to play a role in making sure that the department implements this action plan to ensure that they improve on the issues we identified.