Public Accounts committee  We can't prevent someone from having a second job. For example, if your dad has a shop somewhere and you help him out at night, that's not prohibited.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely.

Public Accounts committee  There's an investigation into that. That's why I'm refraining from talking about it. DND is looking into it. If there is a conflict of interest—

Public Accounts committee  MI think I'm actually being forthcoming here. I'm pretty much telling you that a spade is a spade in the sense that if there was a conflict of interest, yes, it was a problem. There is an investigation. I'm not privy to that information. I have no clue. There could be an explan

Public Accounts committee  That's why my directive requires these agencies to review their governance structure and process to ensure that such a situation doesn't happen again.

Public Accounts committee  No, I didn't say that.

Public Accounts committee  No. I never said that the processes within each department weren't being followed. I want to make it clear that, generally speaking, the accounting and financial processes and controls of each department work. That said, when a situation of this magnitude occurs and the lessons l

Public Accounts committee  First, regarding why the other companies may not have lodged a complaint, I can't speak on their behalf. What I can tell you is what a normal process would look like. First of all, it does happen that a vendor may be involved in or engaged to help in the preparation of a statem

Public Accounts committee  My request isn't just for the people responsible at the Canada Border Services Agency. I think the agency has been audited more than normal, and it now needs to be given a chance to put a plan in place. As I explained earlier, the controls come with the deputy minister's accounta

Public Accounts committee  First of all, we take the findings extremely seriously. As the Treasury Board, we are looking...all of us there. There are notions that came out that deal with financial records not being in place and with financial practices. There's also a notion of conflict of interest. There

Public Accounts committee  Honestly, from what I've seen—and I'll speak for myself—I'd like to think that, yes, it did. Again, there was no playbook with the pandemic. It was the first time. I think that, generally, there were a lot of people who wanted to ensure that the right decisions were being made.

Public Accounts committee  First of all, I'm extremely concerned by Mr. Richard's comments yesterday. I'm not disputing them, to be fair. I've operated for over 30 years in the financial community of the Government of Canada. I can assure you that when I had something to say, regardless of my level as a j

Public Accounts committee  That's a very good question. I would say there is dual accountability. As I explained, departments operate within a set of authorities that have been delegated to them. The expectation is that when they operate within these authorities, they have the measures in place to ensure c

Public Accounts committee  If there had been no directives or policies, the Auditor General would have pointed that out. There probably would have been a recommendation concerning me about the fact that rules were not in place. Accountability is important. There has to be a basis, a foundation, in the form

Public Accounts committee  Honestly, yes, we did our job. That said, we are always open to recommendations. Obviously, when we see audit findings of this significance, we take them very seriously. As the Auditor General said, this is not one of our finest audits. We are now in the process of determining w