First, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that you are referring to what is called chapter 0 of the commissioner's report. That is where we analyze all of the findings, all of the chapters of the year's report. The common denominators emerge, and it is on that basis that the five of us analyze and identify the main thrusts of the report for the year in progress.
That is what brought me to say that in this case, the government has trouble supporting its own initiatives. Last year, we were able to see, in all of the areas we audited, that the government tends to fire up the engine enthusiastically, but the more time passes, the more things are forgotten and the more commitments are brushed aside. As a result, in view of the findings at the end of the day, we could only conclude that the government never managed to cross the finish line, was not saying that it had succeeded in reaching its goals in this or that way and was not telling us what results it had achieved. So it was an overall finding in relation to the entire report.
We tried for the first time to find the root causes or the origin of the problem. I am going to tell you from memory what our findings were. First, we found that there was a tendency to overcommit and underdeliver.
Second, we said there was a lack of leadership, both within departments and at the political level. The departments themselves told us that they were trying to find out what the government's priorities were and that they were not clear. So they are doing their best with what they have, without any guidelines, so to speak.
We also mentioned that there were turf wars between departments. They have an extremely hard time working together on issues known as horizontal issues.
Finally, we observed that there was a tendency to reinvent the wheel rather than build on solid foundations. One of the problems we identified was how hard it is for the government to objectively analyze its own performance and adjust accordingly to get back on track, if it was off track.
Those observations underpin the comment you quoted.