Public Accounts committee  Yes, it's not sufficient information.

Public Accounts committee  I'll get Mr. Campbell to elaborate on that. I will just mention one case we mentioned in here, the aboriginal housing programs, where the approval process seemed to take a lot longer and they started later, but Mr. Campbell may have other examples.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, I would say that the report was a fairly positive one overall. They went through the risk assessment and identified those two diseases as being of the highest risk, so they focused on developing the plans for them. What we indicate in the report--and they recognize this themselves--is that some of the plans for other diseases are not complete and need to be updated.

Public Accounts committee  I'll hold comment on that, because we're doing a follow-up audit of internal audit, which we will be tabling in the spring. I think it's evident from this report that there has been a strengthening of internal audits across government and that senior managers are relying on them for advice or assurance.

Public Accounts committee  No. Prior to 2006, there were actually quite strict limitations on what information classified as cabinet confidences we were able to obtain, so we were not able to obtain that information.

Public Accounts committee  That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  No. We have been able to resolve that issue and clarify our access rights. We continue to have vigorous discussions at times about that, but it's working.

Public Accounts committee  it's very clear in government policies that the contracting process should be open, fair, and transparent. We have quite serious reservations about how it was done for the Chinook. In response to Mr. Bachand's question, I will provide an explanation to the committee as to what our concerns are.

Public Accounts committee  I think we all have to recognize that there are occasions when sole-source contracting is appropriate. That concept is recognized in government contract regulations. There are four exceptions that are clearly laid out. One used from time to time is that there is only one supplier that can produce or supply that.

Public Accounts committee  That's right. Government will argue it was not a sole source because of the ACAN, so that's where the disagreement is.

Public Accounts committee  I think there are probably two issues. One issue is of course just the volumes they deal with and the backlogs they have. I think there is a lot of attention put on that. The other issue, which actually was interesting and came up in a conversation with some senior bureaucrats, is that there have been a lot of policy changes in this department.

Public Accounts committee  We didn't really get into a lot of the staff training. It was more about the service management system that was in place and that was clearly lacking in many areas.

Public Accounts committee  One of the recommendations we made in the report, Chair, was that the government should look at what lessons can be learned and whether there are simplifications or modifications that can be made to existing processes to speed up and reduce the complexity of some of those processes.

Public Accounts committee  And depending on the particular program and the particular circumstances, you may have to do it for some but not for others.

Public Accounts committee  Again, it's not an issue that we looked at, so I can't comment.