Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Auditor General. I've always had great admiration and respect for your work.
I'll try to cover two chapters, because I'm not sure if you'll have a chance to get back to me or not. I'd like to start by taking another look at the CFIA, which Mr. Christopherson directed our attention to earlier--the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, chapter 4.
I must admit that I was completely dumbfounded when I read about the operations in CFIA. I thought there was a profound lack of controls, no accountability, pure incompetence, and an utter disregard for procedures. In fact, I wonder how the government could allow such egregious lack of accountability to occur.
You yourself list some of the more egregious actions: the difficulty in delivering timely assessments, the backlog for requests and of assessments, non-risk-based surveys that don't identify new threats, inspections that are inconsistent or not completed at all, programs unsupported by information management technology, no tracking systems, programs lacking management processes, lost documents, no risk-based approach, no adequate quality assurance process for shipments, no national tracking system, poor communication, no quality management, and no progress from a 1996 audit. I'm surprised the CFIA hasn't been shut down. Now we learn there are increasing volumes.
In your conclusion you state that the agency lacks an effective integrated risk management approach. You identify significant problems in risk mitigation in processes, some of which I've already listed: lack of management systems, inadequate information management technology, weak information management, and lack of appropriate coordination between branches.
Why has this agency not been shut down or mandated to operate with tighter supervision and controls?