Public Accounts committee  To my recollection, we did not see that. We saw it being invoked in certain contracts, and we saw it being cited and used between the Canada Border Services Agency and Public Services and Procurement Canada. We definitely saw that the authority was there to use the exemption.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, excuse me.

Public Accounts committee  We have already started an audit on this program, and we hope to release it in November. However, there may be delays if we have to wait for information from financial institutions.

Public Accounts committee  Do you mean the line item in the public accounts of the government's financial statements?

Public Accounts committee  I think you should ask the comptroller general's office. They would be well positioned to answer what's made up in that line.

Public Accounts committee  I can try to answer that. The funding for all of the expenditures linked to ArriveCAN—the development of the app, the cloud and all of those things—was mostly through the existing budgets of both the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency. I'm not sure I understand the connection you're making to the loss of fund money, so I apologize.

Public Accounts committee  I think every year, if you look at what we spend, it's a little different in terms of our funding increases, economic increases to employees and so on. What I would offer up is that we are part of the federal government. We seek funding as any other department does. We provide our annual budget to the Department of Finance, because that's the department my office reports through.

Public Accounts committee  I trust that everyone will quote our reports accurately. Once they've been tabled in the House of Commons, they're a matter of public record, and they're there to be used for others as they would like. What I would offer up is that our estimate of $59.5 million was paid to all vendors that had a direct contractual obligation with the federal government.

Public Accounts committee  The English and French languages are complex. We try so hard to make sure that our reports are easy to understand, but at times they are misunderstood. I watched the testimony of the procurement ombud and I thought he was very clear in explaining his words. I would hope that all parliamentarians and all Canadians remember that he tried to clarify what it was.

Public Accounts committee  When we do our work, we try to be very factual about what we saw and what we heard, and we provide some background information about the subject matter. We try to balance our message. When we can talk about the good work the public service does, we do so. When we identify opportunities for improvement, we explain them and issue recommendations.

Public Accounts committee  I think the committee is doing what it's meant to do. It's trying to figure out what happened and what went wrong and then how the public service can do better. I think one of the amazing things about the federal public service here in Canada is that accountability and transparency are always at the forefront, even when something goes wrong, so we can all find the solution to move forward.

Public Accounts committee  It's very clear in the Auditor General Act that the decision to carry out our discretionary audit work, which is performance audits, is at my discretion. I should be able to choose who we audit, when we audit and how we audit. Most of our financial audit work, however, is provided to us through legislation, whether it be through the Financial Administration Act, through the Auditor General Act or through enabling legislation of Crown corporations, as in the case of Export Development Canada.

Public Accounts committee  I often get asked questions, and I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you what I would have done. Hindsight is lovely as well. I can't tell you whether I would have decided that this was the next audit or one of the most important audits we should have focused on, but I can tell you that we pay attention to what's going on.

Public Accounts committee  I agree that it has caused me to reflect on bookkeeping more in general across the public service, but for several years, even before I was Auditor General, I have been involved with the audit of the Government of Canada's financial statements. We spend a large amount of time in many of the very large, significant departments, and bookkeeping and record-keeping are well done.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure that I said I felt confident it wasn't happening in other departments. I feel that in the past, what I have seen is public servants who really care about making sure the books and records of Canada are well maintained. This is a situation that I have not encountered before: to see such a glaring disregard for what I think are some of the most basic elements you would see in record-keeping in project management.