I left one word out. I don't want to have things coming up in Parliament on the last day.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that during the very first meeting we had, I thought the MPs tried to understand the facts and the issues. That's the way we tried to approach it. It was like an examination for discovery, which lawyers would understand. What I found was that the bureaucrats we were trying to hold accountable used that so that when they did come into the public hearing they had their game plan all figured out and they really “murked” the waters. That's the way I saw it. My experience was that this was not very helpful because they were exploiting the situation.
If I could raise one more question before I leave, I want to get this point. On the gun registry--I'm going to be more precise here. I said Treasury Board before, but I'm really thinking of the Comptroller General. I see deputy ministers trekking down to the Comptroller General to ask if they can do this. The Comptroller General tells them there are only two options; there aren't any other options. You either blow your budget or you come back for supplementary estimates. Even the Comptroller General gets a legal opinion, at some point, to say these are the options.
Lo and behold, they go off on their own, leave the Comptroller General out of the picture, get their own legal opinions, and say there's a third way they can do this and they can just ignore the Comptroller General.
To me, this is astounding. The Comptroller General actually resigned because of this situation. They brought in another Comptroller General who apparently said this was okay.
In my view, the Comptroller General is there for the deputy ministers to go to, to seek advice and guidance. They follow this advice and guidance; they shouldn't have the discretion to go off on their own and find some other creative way of getting around the rules. The Comptroller General, as a professional person, tells them these are the rules and this what you have to do. For them to go off on their own and do something else, I find astounding.
I'm really starting to think, to be more precise on this point, that we should have the Comptroller General somewhat accountable to this committee as well, and clearing the air as to who the boss is on these issues. Is the Comptroller General or the deputy minister the boss on the rules of financial management of the operation?