Thank you very much, Chair.
My apologies to you and my colleagues. I think it was mentioned that I was in the House for the tribute to my former leader and, as one of his former deputies, I definitely wanted to be there. I hope you understand.
This is one of those times—after 14 years—when you read this report, and you're still like, how can this be?
I recognize and I'm going to do my best to keep separate the issue of the one-off here, versus the broader cultural issues that we'll pick up on Tuesday. There might be some overlap, but my intent will be as much as possible to stay focused on this report.
Having said that, you can't escape certain words that have been used. I've been around long enough in the public accounts business, and done enough international public accounts business, to know that when an Auditor General of the rank and status in the world that our Auditor General has, Mr. Ferguson, uses words like an “incomprehensible failure”, in that world, that's about as close to swearing as you can get.
I would like to ask Mr. Ferguson something, and the other two reps can get ready, because I'm going to be coming to them next.
That's a huge statement. The last time I saw anything that wide in its scope and that scathing was, quite frankly, the sponsorship scandal, where virtually every rule that was there was broken. You really have to go back that far to find something that is this big in its breathtaking failure.
Mr. Ferguson, you said “incomprehensible failure”. Obviously you're speaking to a lot of the checks and balances that didn't work, because we've heard that there are robust systems in place, and check and balances. I want to give you an opportunity, for my opening remarks, to put a little more flesh on the term “an incomprehensible failure”. Why the word “incomprehensible”, sir?