I think it goes back a bit to the earlier comments, that there's this sort of pendulum that swings between centralization and decentralization. Given the complexity and the size of the federal government, we have to recognize that this has to be a shared responsibility. I don't think it can be totally decentralized; it would be impossible.
There has to be some central function, if not just to produce the financial statements and to issue the policies and the guidance to the departments. To totally centralize would also not be functional, given the complexities of these departments in and of themselves. So there has to be a shared responsibility, and what there probably needs to be is more clarity about what the role and responsibility of the central agency is.
When we talk about monitoring to make sure that policies work, if they find that something isn't working in a department, is it the Treasury Board Secretariat that should be responsible and accountable, or is it the deputy head? I think there needs to be more concrete clarification of those roles, and perhaps the whole accounting officer concept can help to clarify that.