Fine. Thank you.
I'd like to get back briefly to the cost issue. We could estimate how much it would cost departments to conduct audits, but I think that is also something the Auditor General's office could do. If you like, Mr. Chair, I can also tell you what the cost will be to the Auditor General's office, because there are two types of audit costs: those costs incurred by the departments, and those incurred by the Auditor General's office. There are two kinds of costs. It ties in with Mr. Bains' question about this matter.
To answer Ms. Faille's question about the new direction we are taking, let me say this: the statements that agency heads, deputy ministers and their senior financial officers will be required to make must detail all aspects of our examination of a department's financial controls, including our payment methods, our IT security controls, accounting measures, monitoring systems, the extent of departmental interdependence, the number of audits that we conducted, a list of the shortcomings identified in our control mechanisms and mention of our yearly detailed action plan to resolve or address these issues.
These are some of the things that you will find in the statements that you would normally have seen as part of the control mechanisms required of the departments under the policy. These are very specific and detailed measures. These are also components of the action plan announced at the time by the Auditor General, components that were lacking in order to evaluate each department's financial capacity and controls. This information concerning 22 departments, regardless of their size, will be available on the websites as of tomorrow.
Perhaps my colleague has something he would like to add.