Public Accounts committee  The contribution agreement.... Perhaps I could ask for clarification. Are you speaking of the contribution agreements that are the subject to the Auditor General's report?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. No, it does not. The director general is here because she has responsibility at the current time for the office of energy efficiency, which, back in 2003 to 2005, was responsible for the contributions--

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. It's fairly complex, because there are a number of reports, all focused on the same situation. The reference I made to money not being lost or overpayments not made reflects the fact that in April 2006 the payments under CEEA-T were suspended to allow for a much more rigorous review of all of the deliverables under the specific contribution agreement.

Public Accounts committee  Oh, I'm sorry; pardon me. Perhaps I could ask my director general. It's the individual, not the company, that we are no longer dealing with.

Public Accounts committee  I'd certainly be pleased to elaborate on the role of the RCMP. Natural Resources Canada invited the RCMP to review the facts on two occasions, in May 2006 and then upon conclusion of the internal audit in July 2006. All of the findings of the internal audit were provided to the RCMP.

Public Accounts committee  No, we have not had any further contracts, Mr. Chair.

Public Accounts committee  No, we do not.

Public Accounts committee  I wonder if I could, Mr. Chair, ask our director general from the office of energy efficiency to join us at the table.

Public Accounts committee  I believe it was CEEA-T.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. It's a little difficult for me to understand what the motivation was in 2005. I know this is an area where the expertise is fairly limited. I believe that contributed to this situation, which is that you're using a consultant who has this sort of rare expertise at that particular time.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. Throughout this exercise, we were receiving legal advice on our obligations under the contribution agreements. I would acknowledge that there probably were other possible approaches that could have been undertaken, but the advice we received was that because we were in a contribution agreement, the crown had an obligation to pay for work completed.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  The internal audit, which is actually posted on our website, as I mentioned, focused on the overall management, the control framework on contribution agreements. That was the primary focus of the internal audit. There were a number of recommendations made by our internal auditors, and management responses.

Public Accounts committee  It has been since July 2006.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, I have.