The cleanup that's going to be required here might be a bit more of a light dusting if you can't commit. The Auditor General said that conflict of interest rules were not followed and that it was not appropriate.... I'm just going to read right from the act. I know you're new on the job, in the last couple of weeks, but it's the seriousness and, frankly, the simplicity of it.
The act states, under “Conflict of interest”:
For the purposes of this Act, a public office holder is in a conflict of interest when he or she exercises an official power, duty or function that provides an opportunity to further his or her private interests or those of his or her relatives or friends or to improperly further another person’s private interests.
Under “Decision-making”, the act states the following:
No public office holder shall make a decision or participate in making a decision related to the exercise of an official power, duty or function if the public office holder knows or reasonably should know that, in the making of the decision, he or she would be in a conflict of interest.
That is in an act of the Parliament of Canada.
I'm not giving a name or a number, but if somebody was found to have violated the act and violated the conflict of interest rules—the Auditor General says there are at least 90 cases with $76 million—do you not think Canadians might be frustrated? In the work you've been asked to do to clean up, you can't even tell me that if someone is in a conflict of interest, knew the rules, broke the rules and got the money, the money needs to come back to taxpayers.
I'll ask you again: If they're in a conflict of interest and they broke the rules of the act, will that money be forced to come back to taxpayers?