So familiarity lowers risk. And of course the audit function not only reduces the burden on the client, but it also reduces the burden on the contracting agency. For example, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency has totally dismantled its internal audit function. One of the concerns I have is that an organization like ACOA or Western Economic Diversification would have an incentive to only want to or to preferentially want to contract grants and contributions, establish terms and conditions, with organizations that have been longstanding business partners with ACOA or Western Economic Diversification.
My concern, Mr. Scrimger, is that you've actually created a barrier to new organizations, new businesses, new clients, from participating in the grants and contributions process, and you've actually created an advantage to longstanding clients—because they have been longstanding clients, they are considered less risky and therefore won't draw down the resources of a particular department through the audit function and other monitoring functions.
Have you given consideration of that in your overall evaluation of this particular project?