Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses and to the Auditor General.
You conducted a performance audit on the fifth-generation stealth fighter jet acquisition process. The scope of the audit was to determine if due diligence was applied to this process. You have informed us again today that was one of the primary objectives of the audit itself.
You, sir, accomplished what others could not. Through the integrity of your office and your own personal integrity, you successfully focused attention on a serious issue that had been repeatedly reported by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who could not break through to frame attention on this serious issue.
Advice from foreign governments could not capture the attention of the government on this issue. Parliament could not attract the attention of the government on this issue. In fact, those who spoke out were virtually vilified for suggesting that things could be awry. The Liberal Party of Canada has spoken out about this issue since 2010, but you were able to focus attention to this issue, and successfully so.
You raised one recommendation and one recommendation only, but really what you did was focus attention on the process. You said that DND did not perform basic due diligence on this acquisition, which could turn out to be a deal valued at more than $25 billion. You said DND failed to engage Public Works on basic contracting requirements arising out of the 2006 MOU.
You told us that serious problems had not been communicated to Parliament, and potentially to cabinet, and that the risks were understated for this project. You said that the full life cycle costs of the F-35 were deliberately understated to both Parliament and to cabinet, that Public Works didn't fulfill its responsibilities as the government's procurement authority, and that there was no documentation on any of this. Public Works failed its responsibilities when it accepted National Defence's word that the aircraft had to be sole-sourced.
To put this in plain speak, which is what I think we really need right now, isn't moving this now to Public Works simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the band plays on?
How can we have any confidence whatsoever that the government is accepting any of these things? What they are saying, sir, is that DND did indeed perform basic due diligence.