Public Accounts committee  Yes, I understand. But I'm not familiar with the purposes of that program. I think those questions would be better directed to the department involved.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not aware of the details of that program. Frankly, as I already said, the details of programs are questions that are better addressed to the departments. Our responsibility is for the accumulation of these numbers.

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask Mr. Matthews.

Public Accounts committee  I was not involved.

Public Accounts committee  No. I had nothing to do with that particular transaction. That does not fall within the responsibilities of the Office of the Comptroller General.

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask Mr. Matthews to respond.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you very much for the invitation to appear before this committee to discuss the Public Accounts of Canada. I am pleased to be here in my role as Comptroller General of Canada. With me are two members of my staff, Mr. Bill Matthews, Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, and Ms.

Public Accounts committee  No, I did not.

Public Accounts committee  I imagine it would have been in the Privy Council Office.

Public Accounts committee  Do you mean the Comptroller General's office? We have about 150 people. That's the size of it.

Public Accounts committee  No, it's not that high. I think it's more in the order of about $25 million or $28 million or something like that.

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I'll ask Mr. Matthews to explain that process.

Public Accounts committee  As I say, through the consolidated work, all of government is audited today. The policy has said that we're not going to require a blanket drilling down so that all departments would be audited. By the way, that's all departments, not the largest 22. It would be all. The original statement in 2004 concerned all departments.

Public Accounts committee  I think that's a great point. The fact of the matter is that the Auditor General has the mandate to audit. The Auditor General chooses the materiality. So if the Auditor General were to choose to drill deeper for any reason at all, even in the context of the consolidated audit of the financial statements, they could drill deeper.

Public Accounts committee  The Treasury Board ministers.