Government Operations committee  Basically, the supplementary appropriation bills and the estimates are to top up the annual appropriation. They are ongoing expenditures of departments—running expenses of departments, if you like. At the same time that the supplementary estimates are presented, the departments

Government Operations committee  No. When you have the estimates before the Senate, you have the appropriation bills and the complete estimates statements by the departments, and their explanatory notes. It's all out there in the open. There's no question of budget secrecy at that stage.

Government Operations committee  Accrual accounting was adopted only about eight years ago. Before that we had cash accounting. Accrual accounting was adopted, and then there were a great number of complaints from senators, as they couldn't follow the accrual accounts. As a result, the estimates began to creep

Government Operations committee  It's very much on-the-job training. The Senate department does some training for senators. When I say “training”, it's orientation courses for senators. They also are able to call upon departments and the audit office to give them briefings on particular things they're intereste

Government Operations committee  Yes, certainly. That's spelled out in the explanatory notes. And both departments can be called on to explain those particular programs. It's a good way of checking, of course, and cross-comparing on the program.

Government Operations committee  Oh yes, certainly. And committees can arrange between themselves which committee is going to deal with a particular program that is spread across departments.

Government Operations committee  Yes, exactly. It talks about the aims and the effective use of the program and whether it's achieving its aims. I should say that program budgeting is not the term used now for budgeting, but people still talk about programs or projects in departments.

Government Operations committee  They are on an accrual basis.

Government Operations committee  Well, they don't necessarily look at all departments and all programs. Sometimes a department will be passed over without questioning, because there's nothing there the committee wishes to examine. That's pretty rare. Most departments get a run, but the committees sometimes fee

Government Operations committee  Well, the financial year starts July 1. The main appropriation bills and the estimates are presented in May, and the estimates hearings take place in May. The additional estimates come in in February, and then you get the additional estimates hearings. Basically, that's it, but s

Government Operations committee  The Auditor General's reports are certainly one of the main sources of questioning at estimates hearings. If the Auditor General has found difficulties with a particular program, waste or inefficiency, certainly senators will focus on those programs and have detailed questions ab

Government Operations committee  If senators are interested in a particular program, maybe because the Auditor General has commented on it before, there are two ways of doing it. Either the committee can ask for further written information from the Auditor General, a further report on the particular matter, or o

Government Operations committee  Certainly those reports are open for examination at the estimates hearings, and a lot of questions are based on those annual reports. But there's also a system whereby these committees look at particular annual reports within their subject areas and report on them, and they can d

Government Operations committee  This process has been going on since 1970. In 1970 the Senate introduced estimates hearings, but a lot of changes have happened to the process over that period. It's become much more elaborate. The introduction of the supplementary hearings, for example, was one great change. T

Government Operations committee  It's very detailed. These things are very voluminous. The explanatory notes for all the departments amount to a stack a couple of metres high, if you put them all together. The senators focus on the things they're interested in. There will be elaborate explanations of programs th