I call the meeting to order. I'd like to welcome everyone here.
First of all, I'll make a few opening comments.
I want to point out to all colleagues that this is not what I would consider an ordinary meeting of the committee. It's a meeting to hear from our senior officials who deal with expenditure management within government: the preparation of departmental, agency, and government-wide statements. As well, there is a presentation of the published statements and the audit, of course, of all these statements: the performance audit, the financial audit, and the various presentations to Parliament dealing with expenditure management.
The committee is very pleased to have with us today, from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General. She's accompanied by Mr. John Wiersema, Deputy Auditor General. We have the Secretary of the Treasury Board, Mr. Wayne Wouters. He's accompanied by Mr. Rod Monette, the Comptroller General. Also with them is Mr. Alister Smith, assistant secretary, expenditure management sector, and Mr. Frank Des Rosiers, assistant secretary, priorities and planning.
There are a few additional comments I will make before we get started.
I'm very pleased to hear from the Secretary of the Treasury Board. The Treasury Board, as all committee members are aware, is responsible for setting policies and for overseeing administration within the executive. In some respects the role of the Treasury Board, vis-à-vis the executive branch of government, has a certain amount of overlap with the role of the public accounts committee vis-à-vis the legislative branch of government, all of which is concerned with the economy, probity, and compliance in the expenditure of government money.
The Office of the Comptroller General was re-established in 2004 and focuses its attention on financial management, accountability, and key control systems, such as internal audits, especially the new regime, with which every department and agency was supposedly compliant by April 1 of this year.
The public accounts committee started its work in January of this year. We've been at this for three months now, and we thought it was a good time to pause and reflect and hear from some of the senior officials on this particular issue.
We're very pleased that you were all able to attend. I should point out, again, that the committee has waived its normal five-minute requirement for presentations. You can take more time as you so wish.
Do you want to go first, Mr. Wouters, and then we'll hear from the Auditor General.