Public Accounts committee  That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  Well, I hope I'm being helpful with that explanation of how the system works.

Public Accounts committee  That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  If there's an election, what happens is this. Let's say the supply wasn't passed, and this Friday there's the main supply, which I think is just under $60 billion, about $59 billion. Then there's also the supplementary estimates, which are about $5 billion. So that will be voted

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The only thing I'd want to say, and I think I've said this before, is that this committee is really important in terms of accountability, and I think my job as a public servant is to support that and to answer as best I can. I hope we've done that, and I l

Public Accounts committee  If I may, I'll also add something. Correct me if I don't have this right, but my understanding is that this database shows all the expenditures, and I don't believe it actually shows the amount of the vote. So to figure out how much is lapsed, you need to know the difference betw

Public Accounts committee  Yes, but even that.... I don't think it's recording the vote amount, so that database itself won't give you the amount of the lapses.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  If I could just make a clarification, when money lapses in the 2008-09 year, you can't actually use that in a following year. So in other words--

Public Accounts committee  The fiscal group at the Department of Finance actually does look at the overall requirements of government from the point of view of figuring out how much the government needs to borrow. They do look at the overall lapse situation and spending information. These are the folks who

Public Accounts committee  The prime mandate of the Comptroller General is to make sure the people in the departments do things properly. In other words, because the government is so big and you've got 150 organizations consolidated in the public accounts, you want to make sure the chief financial officer

Public Accounts committee  I have to say that in my experience doing a weekly report is almost.... I wouldn't say it's impossible, but when you get into a big organization right across the country, to do something weekly means that you need to have people inputting into the system on a weekly basis. My exp

Public Accounts committee  I'm kind of guessing that it would be in the millions of dollars anyway, but I would really need to have a look at it, because there is some infrastructure there now. We do have the Receiver General, and they do data collection at a government-wide level. But to figure out in thi

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Christopherson. As you point out, the Auditor General will be doing an audit, and they're not going to wait until.... We're actually into the public accounts for 2009-10 now. So that audit would normally take place not this summer but next summer.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely. So she's going to do it even though it's not in the year; she's going to look at it. She's doing it right now, as a matter of fact. Treasury Board Secretariat has an internal audit on vote 35. Bill is looking at—even though it's not in year, because it's starting th