Mr. Chairman, the dilemma raised by Mr. Proulx is real but this is however a situation with which a good number of organizations of some size are faced with. Private sector large companies, multinationals or even large Canadian companies have to deal with it. They have to determine what is the role played by the head office, the management of each of the branches or entities and asked themselves to what extent they should transfer their responsibilities.
The approach which seems to be increasingly developing would be not to have huge head offices. They must be able to provide a direction, as Mr. Williams was saying earlier, to determine the strategy, and the leadership of the group. The head office is therefore responsible for the implementation of all policies. In this particular case, we are talking about policies of financial management applicable to the whole of government. Should it play a policeman role and monitor everything itself? No, I do not think so.
In large businesses, it does not happen. They apply some systems, for instance on efficient internal audit which can be trusted. I imagine that Treasury Board could for the most part rely on internal audits which are done in all departments.
Moreover, we are talking about changing the role played by the deputy minister, so that he would become more of a financial agent. This would be quite consistent with the outline of this new role. In fact, the deputy minister would be required to make statements on his management. We want to know whether he can assure the elected representative and the central agencies that he observed all the guidelines his department must follow. This is what they do in a large organization. This can be done without playing the part of a policeman or draw a line with regard to the financial significance of such a process.
I think that mechanisms could be implemented to allow the centre to play its part as a leader while getting feedback from various sources, which would make it possible for it to decide if the policies have been followed.