Public Accounts committee  That's a huge question. I imagine that it's always possible to improve accounting practices and controls. That is a very big part of the office's role. As part of all of the audits I will do, I commit to considering everything that is done well, everything that is done not as w

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. As I said in my introductory remarks, as part of my duties, I've had the privilege to see both sides of auditing. Through this, I learned how important it is for the auditors' recommendations to be focused on improvement and results. It's not about c

Public Accounts committee  I don't think that all departments like being audited. The recommendations add to their already massive workloads. That's why our recommendations will have to be well crafted. I think that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and our office play a very important role in ens

Public Accounts committee  You're asking me to think back and tell you if I know how our funding has changed over time. I'll admit I don't have all the details, but I know that it was our own decision to cut our budget a few years ago. When our mandate expanded, we decided to ask for additional funding. We

Public Accounts committee  Yes, absolutely. As I said, we got more permanent funding in 2018. We used part of that money to start working on our IT issues. That's not something we can let slide. As you said, during his first appearance before this committee, Mr. Ricard mentioned that some of our systems w

Public Accounts committee  As you said, it's very important for the office to remain independent so that it can always choose where to go, when to go there, and who it's going to audit. Independence is essential to our work. I'm trying to remember your exact question. Would you mind repeating it, please?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you mentioned, prior to COVID, our mandate was expanding with the creation of Crown corporations and the expansion of the work our office has to do on sustainable development in Crown corporations across so many departments. Yes, the recent creation of

Public Accounts committee  When I talk about modernizing the way we work, it touches so many aspects. I would like to see us modernize not only our internal processes in order to be more effective and efficient but also the way we approach audits. The auditing world is changing dramatically and exponential

Public Accounts committee  Like every organization and every department across the government, we are all taking some time to deal with our new normal, working remotely and connecting in different ways. While it has slowed down and absolutely caused some delays in our ability to get information, and the ab

Public Accounts committee  As you pointed out, the office has put in its request for budget 2020. Everyone's waiting to see what that budget looks like. We recently reorganized our operations. It was a very difficult but necessary decision because we needed to make sure we could go ahead with COVID-19 aud

Public Accounts committee  Obviously, having resource constraints puts a strain on our ability to deliver our mandate to the degree we would like. Individuals within our organization are so passionate and focused on delivering on that mandate and providing information to this committee and to all parliamen

Public Accounts committee  I completely agree with you that performance audits are a key tool for this committee in order to deliver on its mandate and hold government to account for the use of public funds. Prior to the pandemic, our office was prepared to table three performance audit reports, so we do

Public Accounts committee  Unfortunately, with some of our resource constraints and the need to make sure that a significant portion of our auditors are focusing on our financial audit work and examinations, especially examinations in Crown corporations, which is something set in legislation, we've had to

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning to you and to all the committee members. I am very honoured to stand before you today as the nominee selected to become Canada’s next Auditor General. The role of the Auditor General is integral to the accountability portion of our