Government Operations committee  Bearing in mind, Mr. Chair, the member's admonishment with respect to the 134%, I did in fact go to the grievance board to ask that very question, but did not get an answer in time for today's meeting, so we beg your indulgence and will follow up.

Government Operations committee  Thank you.

Government Operations committee  It actually is in supplementary estimates A.

Government Operations committee  It is in supplementary estimates A.

Government Operations committee  And it's the unpredictability of the cashflows.

Government Operations committee  Just to recap the numbers, until fiscal year 2009-10 our allowable carry-forward was 1%--or $200 million, actually; the absolute dollar value ceiling was $200 million. Partly as a result of the Auditor General's observations on DND and our own representations, in 2009-10 that carry-forward was increased to 2.5% on our operating and capital budgets.

Government Operations committee  We'll have to get back to you, Mr. Chair, on that one.

Government Operations committee  Yes, grants or contributions.

Government Operations committee  These transfer payments refer to transfers of money from DND to some other party and take the form of either grants or contributions. As you can see, there are a whole range of recipients of those.

Government Operations committee  First, on the authority issue, on the revenues credited to the vote, the department does in fact collect revenues from various sources. Normally, government revenues are, by law, deposited to the consolidated revenue fund.

Government Operations committee  However, many departments, DND included, have, by virtue of Parliament's approval of the Appropriation Act in these estimates, the authority to spend certain kinds of revenue up to certain amounts. The specific revenues that you've asked about on page 244 I believe are related to recoveries of advances from CF members who are on temporary duty or who, for other reasons, received temporary cash advances in the pursuit of their duties.

Government Operations committee  --and Parliament gives the department the authority to re-spend that revenue.

Government Operations committee  Sure. In fact it's all the same phenomenon. You may recall that budget 2010 removed a provision whereby departments would be reimbursed for costs associated with increases coming out of the collective bargaining process.

Government Operations committee  In other words, if a bargaining unit would negotiate an increase of 1.5% per year, where in the past Treasury Board would have given a department the money to cover that cost increase, going forward, departments would have to absorb that increase from existing reference levels. The truth is that in anticipation of future increases departments had already received the money in their budgets for these increases in the future years, so what this represents is that money being clawed back--

Government Operations committee  --in 2011-12 pursuant to budget 2010.