Public Accounts committee  I think I would characterize them as a mix--a mix of the first kind, which, as you say, are good ones. They are the ones where you provide promising officers an opportunity to perform at a higher level to see how they can perform, to be exposed to a mentor, or something like that

Public Accounts committee  I'd have to look at the figures on the second question. Michael, maybe you could tell me what those figures are. In the original plan—this goes back to when the plan was being developed—34 was the number we thought was realistic. Obviously it is not. So in light of the Auditor G

Public Accounts committee  I can assure you that is what the system does. The process starts with a job description and then, through a competitive process that's posted in public, with interviews and so on, ensures that the individuals who are looked at meet that profile; so there's a check. Then they're

Public Accounts committee  No. I believe that the department went through a turbulent time when it was divided in two, as you mentioned. The employees of the department do not want to go through that again. Our plan is based on the assumption that the department will remain as it is now.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, 5,000.

Public Accounts committee  I missed the first part of the question. I do not know. We have nearly 5,000 locally engaged employees and the salary budget—

Public Accounts committee  With respect to PeopleSoft 8.9, it's the new common standard across government. When I was in Agriculture, we were implementing it there, and it must be implemented there by now. I don't know who else is doing it, but it's the common standard.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, it is, but the frequency of people leaving the foreign service to work for private companies in those sorts of situations has varied over time and usually sometimes has to do with the terms and conditions of service inside the government. For instance, we had a high attritio

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure what you mean by a checklist.

Public Accounts committee  It would apply just to Afghanistan and, I believe, to Iraq if there was an incident there. For the time being, it applies just to those areas, but we will see how it performs, and it could well be applied elsewhere if it's needed.

Public Accounts committee  I'll have to seek clarification on that. I can't answer your question. My impression is that this occurred, unfortunately, before this plan was put into place. But I believe there was a settlement worked out with his family.

Public Accounts committee  I have a very quick comment. First of all, I think this is very much at the top of the list of the Clerk of the Privy Council and the deputy community generally under public service renewal, the challenges we face as a public service and bringing in the very best people for wha

Public Accounts committee  You raise a very good question. This is one thing we're looking at right now. We have a group that is reviewing how we manage locally engaged staff. My personal view is that we have tended to over-centralize and that we probably need to do something on a more regional basis per

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, these are being dealt with and are dealt with in this plan, and indeed they are being resolved. We now have in this plan projections of our needs and so forth. Now, let me add a little caveat on that. Because of our transformation, because of the strategic review w

Public Accounts committee  We have here our human resources plan that was prepared and released subsequent to the Auditor General's report. It's been requested already, and we'll circulate it to you. When it comes to our Canada-based staff, this human resources plan is up to date. It will need to be renew