Mr. Chairman, at a strictly legal and technical level, we present our reports to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who tables them in the House of Commons, and those reports are referred to this committee by standing order. So right off the bat, this committee is our key point of interface with Parliament. As an agent of Parliament, we're hear to serve parliamentarians and we see this committee as the key point of interface for our work on behalf of all of Parliament.
The second reason this committee is so important to the work of the Office of the Auditor General is that it brings life to the work of the office by way of its hearings on our individual audit reports. This committee will select a sample of our reports to have hearings on and will call the Office of the Auditor General to explain our findings. One of the unique features of this committee's work that we find very effective is that at the same time, at the same hearing, it will call departmental officials to explain their position opposite the findings of the Office of the Auditor General. And this committee in the recent past has also been very effective in asking departments to prepare action plans. It asks them whether they agree with the Auditor General's findings recommendations, yes or no, and sometimes departments disagree. And that's okay. But if you do agree, what is your action plan for correcting those deficiencies?
I indicated that the key measure of our performance is the extent to which our findings, our recommendations, are actually implemented. It's through this committee that we get action plans and a basis for follow up and accountability.
It's also through this committee that we can communicate to all parliamentarians and Canadians about the work of the Office of the Auditor General or our audit findings. This committee will prepare its own reports to the House of Commons after a hearing, saying: we listened to the Auditor General and the department, and here's our take on what's happening and here's our recommendations to the government on the issues that were our subject.