I just have to say, Mr. Chairman, I think that when we're reviewing the roles and responsibilities of the Treasury Board, we have to address these issues, because we're not really getting any acknowledgement that there's a problem. Mr. Christopherson and Mr. Fitzpatrick are dealing with legal opinions, and now this one.
So let me move on to something else. We're talking here about the deputies being in charge and being responsible for the whole department, which is an ongoing concept, and yet internal audit is their responsibility. And we saw how internal audit worked under the sponsorship scandal. It just basically didn't. I've advocated for a long time that it should be under the Treasury Board--under your management--and under the Comptroller General.
The DPRs--the departmental performance reports--I've called self-serving fluff for years. And yet we can't seem to get the real issues that we could hold deputies accountable for.
You mentioned earlier that if they sign, for example, a contract that is outside their authority, you would deal with that at Treasury Board, but presumably through voluntary disclosure by the department. Now, that seems to be a fairly wishy-washy system of accountability here. Do you intend to strengthen it at all?