Government Operations committee  In terms of the contract referred to earlier with another committee member, the government is still taking action to collect the money.

Government Operations committee  Do you want to know whether all the equipment purchased has been received since we completed our audit?

Government Operations committee  No, I don't think that this company is involved.

Government Operations committee  In our sample of 39 contracts, advance payments were made in 14 cases. We found that one contract was paid in advance but the equipment hadn't yet been received. Public Services and Procurement Canada is taking action with regard to this company.

Government Operations committee  In the case of Tango, I believe that the equipment was received, but the quality wasn't acceptable. There will probably be an exchange or a refund. For this contract, no equipment was received.

Government Operations committee  We've been asked to keep that information secret, since the process is still ongoing. However, it's indeed a few million dollars.

Government Operations committee  We conducted audits for the 14 contracts where advance payments were made. We looked at whether certain audits were done. Several audits can be conducted when it comes to procurement. Not all these audits were done for procurement contracts during the pandemic. For example, a company's financial integrity or financial capability should have been assessed, as required by the procurement policies.

Government Operations committee  Normally, the follow‑up process should be well documented in cases involving delegation of authority. However, because the documentation was missing, we couldn't confirm that this happened. I want to emphasize that this should be done better. In terms of the financial capability analysis, I believe that, when an advance payment is made, an analysis should be done, even during a pandemic.

Government Operations committee  I can only imagine that that is indeed the case, given that this $618 million represents the payments made in advance for the contracts we audited, 39 of 85.

Government Operations committee  I couldn't make an estimate, because I don't have all the data. This is not an accounting comparison.

Government Operations committee  That is correct. All of the contracts that we audited included one of the items that we looked at in our audit, i.e. medical gowns, N95 masks, screening swabs and ventilators. We did not include all equipment that was purchased in our sample.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our audit report on securing personal protective equipment and medical devices during the COVID‑19 pandemic. The report was tabled in the House of Commons on May 26. I am accompanied by Jean Goulet, who was the principal responsible for the audit, and Milan Duvnjak, who was the director for the audit.

Public Accounts committee  I hope they recognize that being in a reactive mode is hard and difficult and isn't sustainable. Actually planning and addressing long-standing issues is absolutely needed. As I mentioned earlier, it's important to invest in the things you just don't see. Whether it's an IT system that supports an important program or whether it's replenishing the stockpile with gloves and masks and determining how much should be there or whether it's addressing long-standing health-care issues in indigenous communities, I hope they realize the value in taking care of those things as we go forward, instead of always being in reactive mode.

Public Accounts committee  If I may, Madam Chair, I agree with the member's comment. I too have family members who are frontline workers, and the country has to do better the next time around.

Public Accounts committee  In my opinion, by having this discussion, we are sending the message that it is unacceptable not to address the deficiencies that we know exist. We wanted the dialogue to really focus on improving ways of doing things, not on why things were as bad as they were and why the reserve was not ready.