Finance committee  Once again, I think you need to put the question to the Canada Revenue Agency representatives, but you are quite correct. The current environment is not the same as the one we were living and working in at the beginning of the pandemic, in March, April and May 2020. In the new programs that will be put in place, I expect to see adjustments and improvements in terms of pre-payment controls.

Finance committee  You are correct. We did do two audits: one on the Canada emergency response benefit, and one on the Canada emergency wage subsidy. We looked at the design and the implementation of prepayment controls. That is where that first audit stopped, because it was so early on in the pandemic.

Finance committee  I don't really know all of the details of the bill. I did look at the summary and read parts of it. I did not notice if there was a request, when it came to the extension of the wage subsidy, an advancement to ask for the social insurance number of employees linked to that. That was one of our concerns.

Finance committee  As I mentioned, I don't know all the details. I know that there was an inclusion around executive compensation but, sadly, I don't know the details of that. I'm sorry. As I mentioned previously, we were not consulted on the design of the new measures or the policy you are studying.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for that question about funding. As you know, I was appointed Auditor General in June 2020, which was in the middle of the pandemic. After my appointment, one of the first things I did was to update our funding application to the government. We received the amount of money we had requested, which was an increase in our permanent budget of $25 million.

Finance committee  The post-payment verifications were to be carried out by the Canada Revenue Agency, and I expected them to be delivered by the end of 2021. I had planned a second round of audits on CEWS and CERB, which was to start early this year. However, I will have to do my audits later, as the work has been delayed.

Finance committee  Well, fortunately there are representatives of the Canada Revenue Agency here, so I think you should put the question to them. During our discussions, they informed us that people were doing pre-payment control work that was still ongoing and that was why they had delayed their post-payment control work.

Finance committee  Thank you. It's always a pleasure to be here. I would have been here last week when I was originally requested to be invited, but as you may recall, I tabled four reports on COVID measures last Thursday and was unable to be at the committee at the same time. I do believe that audits are a good deterrent in that they are critical when a decision is made to limit post-payment controls and rely on post-payment efforts.

Finance committee  That's correct. Stopping audits would not be a good idea. It would make our office not very useful. I think that we serve Parliament and Canadians, and we provide very valuable work in helping Parliament hold government to account.

Finance committee  You are referring to our report on the Canada emergency response benefit program. In that program we absolutely recognize that the government applied what were best practices in the international sector when it came to emergency management. Those practices point to the fact that the priority in an emergency should be to get money and services out to those in need.

Finance committee  I believe that as I mentioned, an audit is of value when there is something there to audit. You need data and information in order to be able to go in. Otherwise, our auditors can't do their jobs. I am continuing to apply pressure on the Canada Revenue Agency to start the post-payment work because of how critical it is to the success of the payments being made to those who are eligible.

Finance committee  I think you'll have to ask the Canada Revenue Agency when they will get their work done. I am in continual dialogue with the agency in order to monitor the progress of their work so that we can do it in the most timely way possible because, as I mentioned back in March, I think this work is critical.

Finance committee  In your question, you're referring to post-payment verification work. An audit is of value when there is information and data to audit. Hence, without post-payment work having yet begun, it would be difficult for us to go in and see whether or not the mechanisms put in place by the Canada Revenue Agency to identify if payments had been made in error and to recover them if needed have worked.

Finance committee  I absolutely intend to hold an audit. I was very clear when we tabled our audit report on the wage subsidy and the emergency response benefit back in March that this was my intention.

Finance committee  I was expecting to do it as soon as their work had begun. As I mentioned, it's impossible to audit something that has not yet been done.