Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, I am pleased to appear before you as a part of your consideration of the 2006 report by the Auditor General of Canada to the House of Commons.
In 2002, internal complaints were voiced within the RCMP about the management of the force's pension fund. Following an internal audit, the RCMP contacted the Ottawa Police Service to conduct an investigation into activities surrounding the administration of the force's pension fund. This was a criminal investigation.
A major case management model was used to manage this investigation. There are many aspects to that model. In this case it means that a crown attorney was consulted regularly at all stages of the investigation. The investigation itself was exhaustive. It included 238 interviews, including Commissioner Zaccardelli himself, and produced an investigative report the size of a banker's box, along with an additional 75,000 pages of supporting documents.
The Ottawa police investigation also ordered a third-party independent forensic audit as part of their work. Ultimately, the Ottawa Police Service, in consultation with the provincial crown attorney, concluded that the issues uncovered, while serious, were administrative in nature rather than criminal and that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction on criminal charges.
I would like to draw to your attention that after a comprehensive review by the Office of the Auditor General, we received compliments to the investigators on the thoroughness and professionalism of their work.
I respect the important mandate of this committee, and I am pleased to extend my full cooperation to these deliberations and to answer all of your questions.
Mr. Chair, I have Vince Westwick from the Ottawa Police Service with me today. He is here to provide me with advice.
Earlier I realized my staff indicated to the clerk that I would have to leave after the hour that had been set aside. I recognize the importance of the deliberations today, and I am prepared to stay until released, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much.