Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank the committee for the interest in the work that we did on this issue. I think it is an important one that obviously requires ongoing attention. We are very pleased with the response that we received from government in relation to our recom

Public Accounts committee  Certainly in this audit we saw that all of the five departments had put in place the structures, policies, training that were expected under the 2003 code. So I do believe they were taking it seriously. We do have some recommendations to them that they need to complete risk ass

Public Accounts committee  I find it a little difficult to answer the question, Chair. I think a lot will depend on the kind of work being given to those short-term employees. Again, it goes back to the risk assessment—what areas people are working in, if they are largely short-term employees that would in

Public Accounts committee  I think questions of ethics and values need to be continually discussed, communicated, and reinforced with public servants. A large number of people come into the civil service every year who need to understand the values of the public service. As we mentioned in the report, we

Public Accounts committee  I would doubt there is a comprehensive costing of the efforts to implement and maintain these sorts of programs. I would, though, ask what the cost would be not to bring this in.

Public Accounts committee  Can I just respond to that, Chair? I don't really think this is a question of oversight or someone checking. It's making sure that public servants are aware of the values and ethics expected of public servants, that they know who to go to if they find themselves in awkward situa

Public Accounts committee  We did not give any specific consideration to whistleblower public officials, the role of the commission or any of that part.

Public Accounts committee  It is different from detecting and managing conflicts of interest. I consider these to be very different things. This audit focused on the awareness of public servants with respect to conflict of interest, existing policies, mechanisms—for example, training and risk assessment. T

Public Accounts committee  Yes, in certain cases, that could be.

Public Accounts committee  Every department has an obligation to set up a process or implement a code of values or ethics for the entire government. We noted that the five departments that we audited had all met the requirements, namely they were providing courses or had appointed a senior official who wou

Public Accounts committee  That is correct.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Yes, we did point to it in the report as a practice that other departments might want to adopt, that there was an orientation session that was given to all new employees. The reason we raised training was because in the three cases that we note in the report, it raise

Public Accounts committee  We have a fairly rigorous procedure for conflict of interest. As you can imagine, many of our auditors are privileged to sensitive information affecting companies that are listed on stock exchanges, grants that would be given to them, loans, financial information, those sorts of

Public Accounts committee  Well, certainly one of the things we've encouraged government to look at is a more proactive approach to declarations that employees declare annually, not only when they think they may have a conflict of interest but even to declare they do not have a conflict of interest. That's

Public Accounts committee  I have a copy of the act. It is stated that it received royal assent in November 2005, but came into force in 2007.