Again, I think it's the same answer. We do have good co-operation from the departments and organizations we audit, so I don't want to leave any impression that we're saying people don't collaborate with us, because they do. Oftentimes, we will find that as soon as we go in and do an audit, the departments are trying to correct the problem before the audit gets out, because when the audit gets out, they want to be able to say they've already dealt with it. But from time to time, there are issues we raise that take a long time, and because we can't go in and do a follow-up on every audit, or because by the time we do a follow-up audit it takes a while, some of the audits and the results we brought forward can be forgotten.
Today, the focus has been around this question of the reserve force pension. We can use that as an example. Yes, we can go back to identify if in fact there was a performance audit and if there was a piece of work that was brought to this committee. Then the committee can decide whether there's something they can do about that, given the fact that we still can't provide an audit opinion—there was a piece of work done a while back. Is that something the committee could think about doing?
To me, the role of the committee is very much about helping to keep the departments to their commitments, right? I think it's changing now, but I think unfortunately the world had moved into what I'll call a “one and done” situation with these types of audits. A department would have to come here, they would talk to the audit for a couple of hours, and then they would know that they would never have to come back and talk about it again, unless we were going to do a follow-up audit.
I think it will keep the pressure on departments if this committee is keeping more of an eye on specific issues and specific items that have been brought forward and saying, “Okay, you're coming in, you're going to have a hearing, and then you're going to come back in a year or a year and a half, even if there isn't another audit, to tell us about what you've done.”