Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate the opportunity not only to speak to this motion, but to say that I have believed for a long time that accountability is the thing that drives good performance. I have been concerned over the last many years, in fact since we started with departmental performance reports in the mid-1990s, that they tell the good story but they sometimes ignore telling us the whole story. On that basis, I thought it would be appropriate that we put in some kind of motivator for them to feel obligated to tell the whole story.
I had informal discussions some time ago with the Auditor General and her staff, and they resulted in chapter 1 of the May 2003 report being tabled in the House setting up the criteria by which the Auditor General could make a standard evaluation audit of the departmental performance reports—not so that she go all the way to the very back and audit every number that's in there, but to ensure that the whole story is being given to Parliament, because without that whole story we're not able to do our job effectively.
Mr. Chairman, that's why I said “two...at random each year”. You never know whether your name is coming up, and therefore you're motivated to say, “I'd better do a good performance report, because I really would prefer to avoid having to come to explain my fluffy, self-serving report to the public accounts committee.”
Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I feel that in the interests of accountability, as the motion states, this would enhance the effectiveness of the departmental performance reports and the capacity of Parliament to oversee departments.