Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I do not have any statement to make at this point in time. I'd just like to introduce a colleague of mine who will be at the table with me. John Morgan is the assistant comptroller general for financial management, and we are here to answer your questions

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to answer that question. Reference is being made here to events that took place in January, February and March 2004. As the Auditor General mentioned, this is a very serious matter, which I also take very seriously

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question, sir. When we ask whether this is an error or a decision, I think the Auditor General has been very clear on that point. I do support her views that 2002-03 seemed to be just honest errors in terms of accounting, in which period it should be recorded.

Government Operations committee  Sir, if I--

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned a little earlier, that's a very serious question. When I took up my position, I examined the situation and wondered what factors had led to these misunderstandings and different positions. I reached a general diagnosis of the situation usin

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Member, for those two questions. The action plan that has been referred to by the member, Madame St-Hilaire, is part of the response to the audit report—pages 22, 23, and the fifth one is also being put in place. So those are some of the actions taking p

Government Operations committee  At the time this advice was sought from the Department of Justice, the legal opinion came back advising that the amount was not to be charged--

Government Operations committee  In your question you asked about the comptroller general who recommended--

Government Operations committee  There is no comptroller general who recommended this treatment. We've got to be very clear. The advice was received from the Department of Justice as to how this transaction should be recorded. At the time, my predecessor, maybe the deputy, maybe the Auditor General....

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee. This is a very serious matter. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the findings of the Auditor General in her May 2006 report relating to the Canada Firearms Centre with the standin

Public Accounts committee  No, it wasn't the Department of Justice. At the time, it was the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The Department of Justice prepares all the court opinions of the Canadian government. So it provided a legal opinion analyzing the circumstances of that transa

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. As my predecessor mentioned, he expressed his objection to the proposed accounting treatment within the Treasury Board Secretariat. The documentation he refers to is kept by the Secretary of the Treasury Board and was made available to the Auditor Ge

Public Accounts committee  I think this is a matter that must be properly discussed among all the parties. When my predecessor left his position, there was also some question as to whether or not the legal opinion would be accepted. At that point, the question within the Office of the Comptroller General

Public Accounts committee  It was in February and March 2004.

Public Accounts committee  As I told you earlier, I wasn't at the Treasury Board at that time. I got there on June 1. I saw the document that talked about accounting solutions. As a professional accountant and former auditor, it goes without saying that this kind of question startled me. I discussed it wit