Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure today to have the opportunity to address the House on the motion to amend the Financial Administration Act. I applaud the member for St. Albert for moving this motion.
My fellow members recognize as I do the importance of the role of the auditor general having a watchful eye on how the government spends the taxpayer's dollar. In a continued effort to get government right, we should consider what can be done to ensure that Canadians receive top value from their government.
As a result, I would like to thank the member for St. Albert for raising the issue of the follow up by departments and agencies on recommendations that the auditor general makes in his reports. I am sure we all agree that when problems are identified, everything should be done to ensure that actions are taken to remedy any shortcomings the auditor general identifies in his report.
The member's proposal has some merit as it would require all departments and agencies to table in this House a specific response to the auditor general's comments. This response would include time frames for corrective action and would also be referred to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
On the other hand, during this era of fiscal restraint and with the focus on efficiency, we want to ensure that overlap and duplication of actions does not occur.
The report of the auditor general is never taken lightly. Members of this House, the media, the public and many of us look forward to the tabling of each auditor general's report. As a consequence, the government is highly motivated to respond to the concerns raised in each of the reports.
Each department or agency has the opportunity to respond to the comments made by the auditor general and a response is published with the report. This public statement allows the affected party to indicate what actions will be taken in response to the auditor general's concerns and findings.
The report of the auditor general provides ample fodder for questions and lively discussions during question period in this House. Canadians can see ministers being called on to account for activities within their departments. Canadians see and hear through their representatives important questions raised and responded to about activities of the government.
I do not need to remind my fellow members that the auditor general himself follows up every two years on the progress and recommendations. I am positive that all members would agree that the Office of the Auditor General must be diligent in reporting on
the efficiency of the Canadian government operations. Do we want to undermine the efforts of his office by attempting to duplicate this work?
As my fellow members will know and must agree, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts is already very involved with the follow up recommendations of the auditor general. The member for St. Albert, a long time member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, could assure you that this involvement occurs.
Each year the Standing Committee on Public Accounts calls on a number of departments to demonstrate what actions they have taken to rectify shortcomings noted by the auditor general. The public accounts committee has asked for detailed workplans on the status of various activities. It has further asked that updates on projects and their status be provided every six months. Follow up that is as careful and precise as this ensures that the affected department or agency works hard to remedy problems noted by the auditor general.
I am sure we would not want the Canadian citizenry to perceive a duplication of activity in a time when we are trying to streamline and provide the best possible service for each tax dollar.
Not only does the Standing Committee on Public Accounts follow up in depth with selected departments or agencies, but it also contacts all departments and agencies that are mentioned in each report. In doing so, it requests an update on the actions taken in light of the auditor general's comments. This diligence, as the member for St. Albert a committee member himself must agree, should not be underestimated.
I fully support the will behind the member's motion. We all want to ensure that government improves and uses the advice of the auditor general to its fullest extent. We are all aware of our strained fiscal situation and the ongoing questions of where government should put its limited resources.
However, when one considers the current mechanisms which are in place, they certainly seem to provide more than adequate monitoring of activities in response to the recommendations of the auditor general. We must ensure that we continue to create a culture in which the measurement of success will not be the amount of paper we produce but the level of service we provide for Canadians.
In light of this we should seriously consider how much added value for our dollar the proposed motion will provide. In our eagerness to ensure that government does strive to improve on any shortcomings, we must be wary of the tendency to produce a bigger and more expensive bureaucracy.
While the spirit of my fellow member's motion truly is admirable and timely, I question whether the Canadian taxpayer would be able, much less willing, to foot the bill the motion entails. Additional reporting of each detail to the House will be costly. We should consider the Canadian citizen to whom we are all accountable as we debate this motion to amend the Financial Administration Act. We should consider that while the will is to ensure cost effective government, is the result cost effective?
By way of conclusion, allow me to summarize. There can be no debate as to the level of gravity with which the auditor general's reports are received. It is a document which is widely available in various mediums to the Canadian public.
The proposed motion to amend the Financial Administration Act does raise an important issue of formal reporting of activities in response to recommendations of the auditor general. We should consider the level of reporting and follow up on the auditor general's report that currently exists whilst debating this motion.
Departments and agencies are provided the opportunity to publicly state their response and intended actions within the report itself.
Question period is a venue where one may ask the minister what he or she intends to do about concerns raised by the auditor general.
The auditor general himself follows up on the actions of the affected departments and agencies every two years.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts contacts each and every department and agency mentioned in each report. The committee asks them to report on their progress on the recommendations of the auditor general. The public accounts committee also issues frequent reports on government activity to which the government must respond.
In further asking departments and agencies to table detailed responses in this House, are we thereby undermining the important roles of both the auditor general and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts?
Currently, departments and agencies respond to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the auditor general, the media and the public at large. In asking departments and agencies additionally to table formal reports in this House, are we asking the Canadian public to pay for a larger and more expensive bureaucracy?
During this time of fiscal restraint, while we are trying to achieve maximum efficiency with a modicum of resources, we should consider as we debate this motion whether it will be cost effective.
I believe that all of us here have the same goal. We all want to ensure that the government continues to improve. We all want to ensure that Canadians receive value for their tax dollars. The spirit of this motion is clearly there and I applaud it. However the spirit may not end up being reflected in the result.
It does not matter whether it is the government, a business, a municipal government or any organization that handles funds, it is the way in which one does business. It is the efficient way in which one does business and not the amount of paper and the reporting that makes the business function or makes it efficient.
We are here to clarify and to reduce government burden, not to extend the bureaucracy. We feel there are enough mechanisms in the reporting of this document that this House should be satisfied.