Public Accounts committee  I have a couple of general observations to start with. First of all, when you appropriate funds, that represents an upper ceiling. So there's never really an expectation that it will be completely used. Departments are certainly not obligated to spend their entire appropriations,

Public Accounts committee  In this case, essentially the way this type of expenditure would have been shown in the past was as an asset, essentially a prepaid expense. Now, under the Canadian public sector accounting standards, they have certain characteristics of what they would like to classify as an ass

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, using the tax system as a delivery mechanism....

Public Accounts committee  It puts a cheque in the right hands.

Public Accounts committee  As I mentioned, that is my understanding of the reason behind the change in the standard. It is meant to better reflect the underlying nature of the transaction.

Public Accounts committee  I think it would have always been accurately computed. It's just really presentational. It's more visible this way and it groups like with like.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, to the extent that much of it is the interpretation of the numbers rather than the compilation. Their expertise is in that area.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that would be an example.

Public Accounts committee  I think Ms. Cheng has indicated that first of all, there are.... In your first questions, you referenced performance audits. I think it's important to point out that this would not be classified as a performance audit. This is an audit of financial statements.

Public Accounts committee  Notwithstanding that, as we see in the observations attached to this, the Auditor General does make recommendations.

Public Accounts committee  So what we do inside a department when we receive an Auditor General's recommendation is.... First of all, they often point to a direction rather than specific action, so we have to translate that into some sort of specific action. We would make a plan. We would then execute the

Public Accounts committee  Are you asking for a process in general? I thought your question was about a process in general. Now you're returning to one specific instance. So perhaps if you wish to know about one program—

Public Accounts committee  All right, so the process in general, as I started to say—

Public Accounts committee  Certainly.