The federal government is the largest employer in the country, so we're quite huge. In the past there were attempts by the Treasury Board Secretariat and other central agencies to do fairly detailed monitoring of what departments did. It was largely unsuccessful because it's very hard for us to see deeply inside organizations. That's why we have relied on deputy heads to ensure that this happens. The check that we have on them is the monitoring that we actually do through the management accountability framework and other instruments we can use if there are issues.
On October 25th, 2012. See this statement in context.