Mr. Chair, I'll give a few very brief answers.
First of all, in terms of the G-8 and G-20 legacy fund, there is no specific reference, aside from in the individual departments and ministries, where you can see how money was actually spent against that particular purpose. The public accounts weren't set out to deal with that kind of accountability framework. It tends to be more ministerial accountability in terms of reporting back to Parliament.
From what I understand, the public accounts is not set out to do that type of reporting. The requirement for what is reported in the public accounts is really at the pleasure of Parliament. If Parliament chooses that it wants certain information, it could require that and then the government could furnish that information to be included in the public accounts.
The other quick comment I would make is that there is one place in the notes to the financial statements where there is an authority issue that the government addresses year after year. If you turn to page 2.12, which is in section 2 of volume I—again, volume I is the only volume we audit—within the public accounts itself, in note 2, you see the right-hand column, under ii, after two paragraphs on that page.
Mr. Chair, if members are able to find that particular page—again, it's 2.12, in volume I—you'll see there is something called “Over-expenditure of spending authorities”. So where you've actually set a limit you say the vote authority is x, and where an entity has overexpended, the government would then choose to report that. And we do look at that. That is one piece of a compliance issue, I guess, that does get brought forward to Parliament.
Aside from that, with some of these other authority issues it's not obvious to me how they're really reported in the public accounts.
As far as appearing as a witness, we're at the committee's pleasure. Obviously if you would like us to appear on whichever subject we would be happy to do so. It's at the call of the committee.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.