Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I'm afraid I don't have that number exactly at my fingertips, but we will be able to get it for you.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  In terms of syndicated polls, we would encourage participation in order to reduce costs for a government department that needed the information. And we certainly watch to ensure that these are not partisan political involvements. I think that's pretty much a policy that we have.

Government Operations committee  No, this is a technique that, at that level, was not planned originally, but access to introduce the latest and the best techniques that industry was using was part of the plan. As we became aware of it, we considered it.

Government Operations committee  Correct.

Government Operations committee  Madame Chair, “The Way Forward” is just a general description that is applied to two major initiatives that are going—

Government Operations committee  I would say it was initiated quite earlier, but things were crystallized and presented in Budget 2005.

Government Operations committee  That is correct.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I could just add a bit. The minister has pointed out correctly that the firm of A.T. Kearney, an international procurement expert, was retained under a competitive process in November 2005. The amount authorized for the contract was $19 million, and not a lesser amount. Instead of issuing a single contract for $19 million, we began the process by issuing a small contract for $1.75 million.

Government Operations committee  Yes. It is improving.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I'd be happy to answer the question. The situation, of course, arises because of the very complex pay structure of the government and the systems that exist, which we are addressing by changing and introducing a new pay system for the government as a whole. We have put on extra staff, and we're catching up the backlog.

Public Accounts committee  That is correct.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I believe it was. The reason I can say that is that there is no deal until all the conditions precedent are met. We had the very same situation with the Department of National Defence, where we had signed a letter of intent with the owner explicitly stating that we had to get all these approvals done.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I don't know Mr. Doucet; he has never met with me. He certainly did not meet with our department prior to the letter of intent being signed. The letter of intent was signed January 10—

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I'll follow on from that. We have accepted the Auditor General's recommendation. In each case in which our analysis showing the lowest cost was not the one that was eventually implemented, we will report it in our departmental performance report so that you can see it.