Public Accounts committee  I don't have that information in my office. There's an expenditure report that's prepared by the expenditure management group at Treasury Board Secretariat. They prepare that information. To my knowledge--and correct me if I'm wrong, Bill--I don't believe that report has been prepared at this point.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much for that question, Madam Ratansi. The due diligence started with Treasury Board, the actual cabinet committee there, which approved the terms and conditions. That means all of the eligibility criteria for the budget initiatives.

Public Accounts committee  It would depend on the various programs, or whatever the programs were. For example, if it were an infrastructure program, it would say who could do those particular projects. That would be the first step. Once those program terms and conditions are satisfied, the next step is for the chief financial officers and audit executives in every department to ensure they have put in place review mechanisms and to ensure that the documentation is processed, so that people are actually signing off and putting in place the right documentation for all of the decisions made.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss your motion of May 14. Let me begin by reiterating my respect for this committee and for the work that you do. Mr. Chair, I believe strongly in being helpful and responsive in support of this committee’s work.

Public Accounts committee  It will be a week or so. Thank you.

Public Accounts committee  I had in my mind the response to the question around accountability. There were a number of questions on that generally, but I don't want to take up the committee's time, Mr. Chair, on that issue.

Public Accounts committee  The eligibility criteria would be in all the various departments. Each department would have its own criteria. The audit function in each of those departments would have gone through the criteria with the people in the department to try to make sure the criteria are as clear as possible.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for that question. It's actually Mr. Smith who was doing the strategic review.

Public Accounts committee  We're not exactly there. If you look at the big departments, the top 23 that account for about 95%, we're on 21 out of 23 right now. There are two to go, and I expect number 22 next month. Probably one is straggling by a couple of months, but we're very close. Then some smaller departments need to comply.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, absolutely.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Christopherson. I've personally visited about two dozen of these, and the people in the departments are taking seriously the new audit committees we have, with external members; they really are. One of the jobs these committees have is to go through not just the Auditor General's recommendations but internal audit recommendations and then to report on them every year.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and Mr. Christopherson. One of the things I think we're getting a little bit better at is the whole area of fraud detection. We have learned a bit in the last couple of years. There was a recent fraud at PWGSC, and when we looked at it, we found that when people do these things, there are patterns.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, Madam Ratansi. The audit and finance communities have been quite involved with the budget stimulus package. From the audit side, it was one of the things we had focused on right from the get-go after discussions with the Auditor General's office, and I also had discussions with the Auditor General's counterparts in the United States as well as the Comptroller General down there.

Public Accounts committee  Each of the departments would develop their eligibility criteria for those programs. Those go through the Treasury Board and were approved. But before they came to us, the auditors in the departments would look at them and ask: Have you thought about this? Is this clear enough here?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Wayne. I'm on page 10 now of the presentation. The Office of the Comptroller General really has two main interests, one being the financial management and the other being the internal audit function. One of the things we do is try to make sure departments and agencies have the right oversight mechanisms in place in these two areas.