Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question, sir. Actually, we did not inform the assistant commissioner of the operational needs. The assistant commissioner was in place to liaise, to make sure we got the documents we needed out of the RCMP and other government agencies.

Public Accounts committee  At no time did I or Inspector Roy, my delegate, take any orders from Assistant Commissioner Gork. In fact, the final report was not tabled with Assistant Commissioner Gork. I took that directly to the commissioner.

Public Accounts committee  The Crown looked at all of the details of the case—

Public Accounts committee  —including the report. There were at least 10 meetings with the crown attorney during the investigation, at all stages of the investigation.

Public Accounts committee  So they were thoroughly advised and actually had the opportunity to ask their own questions so that we could make sure we were very thorough in the follow-up they required, so that we had the answers they were looking for.

Public Accounts committee  In fairness, it was a joint decision. The crown attorney decided that there was not a reasonable prospect of conviction, and for that reason we did not lay the charges.

Public Accounts committee  If there is a concern that somehow Staff Sergeant Mike Frizzell was silenced by whatever happened, I can assure you that he wrote a key part of the final report that was submitted. He led the contracts portion of the investigation. The contracts portion of the investigation was t

Public Accounts committee  In our report we identified all of the incidents like that where we found there were problems. We divided the investigation into three streams. One of those streams focused on exactly that: where people were hired contrary to the rules and it was of questionable value. That was i

Public Accounts committee  I would certainly like to look at those documents. I'm not aware of those documents. I can tell you that in the final analysis, what persuaded the Crown was that there was no evidence that any money had gone from any of the pension funds or the insurance system into any individua

Public Accounts committee  Yes, sir, we have.

Public Accounts committee  It depends on the circumstances. Sometimes it's the easier decision to make, sir.

Public Accounts committee  Never.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure I follow.

Public Accounts committee  I agree with that point.

Public Accounts committee  Well, sir, I don't want to comment on what the RCMP may have been thinking, but in my experience, they both lead to the same place. So I would not necessarily find it unusual that they would have an audit done before they commenced a full-blown investigation and decided how to do