Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Distinguished members of the PAC, Ms. Fraser, I'm very grateful to all of you for inviting our visitors from abroad to see first-hand how the federal PAC interacts with the Auditor General to help close the accountability loop in our country.
Joining us at the table are Mr. Leigh Trotman, Auditor General of Barbados; Mr. Deodat Sharma, Auditor General of Guyana; Mr. Anthony Gatumbu, Auditor General of Kenya; Ms. Averil James Bonnette, Auditor General of Saint Lucia; Mr. Hoang Hong Lac, Deputy Auditor General of Vietnam; and Mr. Nguyen Van Quoc, Director, International Relations, and Mr. Lac's translator.
Our colleagues are in Canada to help us celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fellowship component of something called the international legislative audit assistance program. They're also here to learn from each other, as we seek ways to strengthen this program in the decade or so ahead. It's a working trip, if I can put it that way, Mr. Chair.
Under the fellowship component, auditors from developing countries come to Canada for 10 months to study how we do legislative auditing in this country. Upon returning home, they work with their auditors general to implement what they've learned here. The program is funded by CIDA, with CCAF, the organization that I chair, as executing agent.
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada has been very supportive of this program for a very long time, providing both technical and on-the-job training for participants. Over the past 30 years, we've had well over 150 fellows from over 45 countries visit Canada as part of this fellowship component. The office of the Auditor General of Quebec and, more recently, legislative audit offices in Alberta and British Columbia have also supported the program.
With that, Mr. Chairman, perhaps I will turn things back to you. As I understand it, we're going to have an informal question and answer period up to about 11 o'clock.
Thank you once again to all of you for having us with you this morning.