Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to see that people are talking about government accountability today, because we just learned that today, one of the major players in the sponsorship scandal has decided to plead guilty to 28 counts of fraud.
That was part of the Liberal ad scam. Jean Lafleur announced today that he will plead guilty to 28 counts of fraud. I find it interesting that under these conditions we are getting lectures from the Liberal Party, which oversaw and carried out that fraud to its own benefit, on how we ought to restore accountability in this House.
I note that the chair of the public accounts committee was part of the previous Liberal government that was responsible for that corruption and fraud. It is with a great deal of respect that I stand in this House today and honour the Federal Accountability Act and its main components by clarifying what the act was meant to accomplish and how it is meant to be implemented.
The accounting officer model was meant to clarify the roles and responsibilities of those in the senior bureaucracy, to recognize that the deputy heads in departments and throughout government have a responsibility to explain the public administration that occurs within their departments. Those individuals are answerable to Parliament. They are not accountable to Parliament. Never in the history of our parliamentary system has a deputy head ever been directly accountable to Parliament. It is not how the system works.
The minister is accountable, which is where we have a disagreement with our Liberal colleagues. The Liberal Party does not believe in ministerial responsibility. The Liberals do not want to come before the House of Commons and defend their own behaviour--