Madam Chair, we didn't look at the use that was being made of these different reports, but certainly one of the major issues the small agencies brought forward in the interviews was that they found this requirement to be a significant burden on them. That was especially true for the very small ones.
I would raise three issues. As the secretary has mentioned, often when you look at programs or requirements one by one, the reporting requirements seem reasonable. It's when you add them all up that you start to realize there's duplication. For example, they raised with us the issue that while they have to produce a departmental performance report, many of them have to produce an annual report as well. It's basically the same information in both. People can say they can just reprint it, but is there not a way to combine them and do one report that is meaningful?
Another issue is that when policies are issued, no distinction is made between big and small. I know you come from the world of accounting, where we're even starting to talk about standards for small and medium-sized businesses. Maybe a distinction needs to be made for smaller organizations, and I hear the secretary saying they're considering that.
One of the options they might look at is the frequency of reporting. Do things need to be reported as frequently for smaller agencies as for the larger ones?
I think different alternatives are available. Some reports, of course, are required. We can't eliminate all the reports. They are absolutely essential to good accountability. However, I think there needs to be a focus given, a lens given, especially for the smaller agencies.