Public Accounts committee  I'll tell you what the consequences are. Managers have accountabilities up the line. That's the way the system works. They're expected to do certain things. Certainly we take our security responsibilities very seriously. We have a section in the department that is responsible f

Public Accounts committee  I think part of the problem here is an historical one that has to do with funding for language training particularly. It has tended to be one part of the department that has been easiest to cut whenever we've had budget cuts. So it is starved for resources, first of all. Second,

Public Accounts committee  That's what we are doing.

Public Accounts committee  First of all, as a deputy, I believe the problem has to be fixed. Secondly, I don't think you go around fixing it by threatening to fire people because they haven't filled out these forms, and that sort of stuff. My purpose in sending out instructions is to regularize the situati

Public Accounts committee  Do you want a comment on that?

Public Accounts committee  Let me just say on a personal note, Mr. Chairman, that I am a foreign service officer and I've had six postings, and I have a spouse. I have heard this almost every day of my professional career. So personally I'm very much interested in dealing with the issue as best we can. T

Public Accounts committee  The way we're dealing with that is by regularizing people in acting positions. Regarding the process I described to you where we are looking at individuals who have been in acting positions and are confirming them at that grade, again the Public Service Commission has agreed that

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, if I may, as I said in a previous response, we have been able to reduce the number of actings by 30% over the last year. We have gone through an enhanced promotion process. We've put this system in place where all assignments are put through a group of managers who loo

Public Accounts committee  We constantly remind our heads of mission and our people abroad to follow the regulations, which includes security checks and keeping the records up to date.

Public Accounts committee  We're doing a couple of things, one of which, of course is, as you say, that missions have been reminded of their responsibilities as managers of the staff to ensure that the practices that we insist upon and have insisted upon with respect to hiring qualified people, having the

Public Accounts committee  We are taking steps to correct those shortcomings identified by the Auditor General. I can't deny that those shortcomings are there; the Auditor General found those shortcomings.

Public Accounts committee  I don't deny that what is in the Auditor General's report is what she and her staff found, but I can assure you that we are taking steps to correct it.

Public Accounts committee  We're giving them no extra resources. This is part of the normal management of missions, and administrative sections working under the head of mission will need to do that work. It's a requirement, and we haven't given any special resources for that. That's part of their normal w

Public Accounts committee  Previously or now?

Public Accounts committee  Yes, of course.