Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Dany Richard. I am the president for the Association of Canadian Financial Officers. We are North America’s largest union that exclusively represents accountants, comptrollers, auditors and other financial professionals. We have more than 7,000 members in over 70 departments within the Canadian federal public service and at Nav Canada. The majority of our members hold a professional designation such as CPA. They play a pivotal role in ensuring the effective management of the public purse.
Having reviewed the Auditor General’s report on ArriveCAN, I was severely disappointed with the findings and the implications for the integrity of internal controls and financial oversight within the federal public service during the pandemic. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand the importance of maintaining proper financial records.
Had our members been properly consulted in this process, establishing a governance structure is something that any one of them would have immediately identified as essential, but during the rush of COVID–19, certain basic best practices were ignored in the interest of time. Corners were cut, and that comes with a risk—