First of all, I'd like to mention that the policy on internal control really has strengthened significantly the requirements imposed on departments to demonstrate their accountability with respect to maintaining affected systems of internal control. With this policy, which is relatively new, all departments across government now have to complete an annual assessment of the effectiveness of the key controls, based on risk. But more than that, they are mandated to provide an action plan, and we show in the report of the Office of the Auditor General some examples of that, on the results of those assessments. They also have to publish every year a report on progress. So that's the first thing I wanted to mention.
In terms of monitoring, I can tell you that the 22 largest departments that are in the first group of departments to implement the policy on internal control--and which represent 90% of government spending--on November 17, two weeks ago, produced their second public report. Based on these two first reports, we can say that there are significant improvements in the progress of departments with respect to meeting the requirements of the policy on internal control.
In 2010, about 50% of the departments were in the middle stage. They were not in fact proceeding with operating testing, effectiveness testing. This year, based on the second report, we can say that over 80% of them have commenced this kind of activity. So we are monitoring the progress of those departments, and we can see progress.
We are also using the management accountability framework process, which is an annual assessment managed by Treasury Board Secretariat and the Office of the Comptroller General, to assess every year the management performance of departments in different areas, including internal controls.
We also leverage on the internal audit departments and also we leverage on the departmental audit committees that exist in departments to monitor on a periodic basis, with deputy heads, progress made in each department.