Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on Bill C-207 which is the act to amend the Auditor General Act. The bill has been introduced by the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier. It is noteworthy that the member is a former chairman of the public accounts committee and now sits on the government side and is introducing this particular bill.
The first thing we should note is that this bill is not a partisan bill but is what I call a good government bill. It is long overdue and therefore my sincere thanks to the member for Ottawa-Vanier for introducing the bill.
The bill basically has two major provisions. One of course is to allow the Auditor General to report to this House more often than once a year. We all know that once a year there is a feeding frenzy by the media to read through that voluminous report which is 600 to 700 pages of all the problems, mismanagement and waste of taxpayers' dollars he has found.
Since he is basically restricted to reporting only once a year, quite often the information we receive is a year old by the time the Auditor General is finished with it. He may have conducted his audit some months before but it sits on his desk for a whole year until such time as he produces his annual report.
The report is then referred to the public accounts committee which may take another six months or so before it gets around to dealing with the points the Auditor General has raised. It is not inconceivable, in fact it is more than likely the information being discussed and acted upon in the public accounts committee could be 18 months old, if not closer to two years old before it is dealt with effectively and responses and remedial action taken. Quite often the civil servants involved may have moved on to new positions.
It therefore becomes quite difficult for the public accounts committee to act as effectively as it perhaps could if the Auditor General were allowed to report more frequently.
I would hope if the Auditor General is given the authority that he would report to this House on a frequent basis, after every audit upon the completion of the audit. In that way the information can be referred to the public accounts committee and it can act swiftly and timely on the information provided.
For example, right now the public accounts committee is dealing with an issue where $1.1 billion of revenue was lost through a problem in finance, justice and national revenue. That is $1.1 billion of taxpayers' money. We are now going back to find out what has caused the problem. The Auditor General knew about this a long time ago but because of the current restrictions on his ability to report, he was unable to do so until January of this particular year. The information is old.
Let us make sure that we as the people responsible to the constituents of this country can make a serious and real difference.
We also have the opportunity of the Auditor General being more responsive to directions from this House. For example, the standing committees may require information from the Auditor General. They would ask him to conduct certain audits if it comes to their attention there is mismanagement, waste, or something going on in any particular department, crown agency, and so on.
These things have to be looked at seriously in light of today's situation where we are $500 billion to $550 billion in debt and that amount is growing every day. Anything that can be done in the light of good government to ensure the taxpayers' money is spent honestly and responsibly can only be good for this country.
I have talked to the Reform caucus. The bill is endorsed by the Reform Party as a whole. I certainly wish the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier success in shepherding this bill through its various stages to ensure it becomes law in this land.
As a member of the public accounts committee I think it is going to be beneficial to the public accounts committee, to the Government of Canada and to the taxpayers. I can support the bill wholeheartedly.