Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, there is a confusion of the Susans here. It was actually Susan Fletcher who had the exchange with Mr. Martin. I'm sorry.

Public Accounts committee  Could I ask Ms. Fletcher to respond?

Health committee  We have verified that all $2.6 billion expended under NIHB has been spent on legitimate and appropriate medical services and products.

Health committee  We have gone through a laborious process, which has taken us a considerable amount of time—

Health committee  Yes, and since we uncovered ourselves some weaknesses in our management processes in 2003. We have established, through service providers and First Canadian Health, that all of the $2.6 billion was spent appropriately.

Health committee  It's difficult for me to respond to an observation that the Auditor General has made about Public Works as opposed to Health Canada. I think if the committee would like to pursue that with Public Works, it would be appropriate, Madam Chair.

Health committee  Public Works provides contract management and contract awarding services for departments in government. As I said, with respect, I think it would be more appropriate to direct questions about what Public Works did to Public Works officials.

Health committee  I think the reference I made was to a number of internal reviews we conducted in 2003 of our own management of the contract—not of First Canadian Health but of our management of the contract.

Health committee  The reporting that takes place through the estimates would probably not have captured all of the internal reallocation that we—and I'm sure other departments—undertake. The estimates would capture any transfers in the department between votes, but those would be fairly significan

Health committee  Indeed, we do think it's appropriate for us to review our cost-recovery framework in the department, and we have a number of initiatives under way. In some cases, fees haven't been reviewed--as I mentioned earlier, I think in the case of Mr. Yeates' branch—since the early 1990s.

Health committee  Certainly. In response to that element of the report, there's a very close linkage between the changes we've made to the operational planning process and the changes we've made to the budget management framework in the department. That included a number of governance changes with

Health committee  I'm going to ask Mr. Potter to comment. It's hard for me to answer that question myself, given that I can't speak for the individuals in question. It may not mean that they didn't have documentation at the time. What it does mean, however, is that there was no documentation on th

Health committee  I understand. We have subsequently verified all of the $2.6 billion that was paid, and we have confirmation that all of that money was paid for the appropriate goods and services under the contract. We have conducted a post-audit verification, if you like, of that entire amount

Health committee  I don't think the process we went through to undertake the verification we did was designed to justify anything. We have a responsibility to ensure that the public funds that were spent were spent appropriately, and that's what we did. As for cancelling the contract and re-tend

Health committee  I can't answer that question for you.