Government Operations committee  The comptroller general reached out to all 10 departments and agencies that indicated they had contracts with McKinsey & Company and provided them with an audit program that the internal audit shop had to, at a minimum, carry out, in addition to whatever other work they may have wanted to do around the procurement process.

Government Operations committee  I can tell you for sure that our process was quite thorough. We did review some of the work of the internal audit shops and relied on some of their work. Some of the work was excellent, and we were able to use it and add to it where we needed to when it came to determining value for money.

Government Operations committee  Perhaps they weren't looking for it. However, in my view, given the renewed conversation about values, ethics and conflict of interest across the public service, I felt it was important to ensure that conflicts of interest were well managed, especially when I recognize the source of the motion that was passed in the House for me to do this work.

Government Operations committee  I'll just clarify the percentage issue. We used a sample consisting of 33 contracts out of the 97 contracts in question. This was a sampling for statistical purposes. Indeed, you could extrapolate from professional services contracts. That said, I think it is important to make it clear that comparisons should be made based on the same population.

Government Operations committee  I'm going to have to ask Nick if he can provide some additional details on that.

Government Operations committee  When it came to the issue with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada, I actually spoke with the deputy minister myself. He assured me that the individuals in question didn't access anyone's personal information. I would have been concerned around applications from individuals seeking either residency or work permits here in Canada.

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry, but I might see if Nick wants to add anything. We did not work with the Procurement Ombud. We were aware of each other's reviews. We were both responding to requests for work. Mine was from a unanimous motion from the House of Commons, and his was from a different source.

Government Operations committee  We did not see anything that rose to the level that we felt we should raise concerns to the RCMP. However, I am not law enforcement. They are welcome to read my report and come to talk to us about any of the examples that we provided.

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure what more I could offer than from my previous questions. We did not see ministerial interference in any of the contracts. The review of these 97 contracts did not raise concerns that we felt were of a nature that we should refer to the RCMP. This is a question of understanding the rigour that is needed around Government of Canada procurements to demonstrate value for money to Canadians.

Government Operations committee  I think it's important to highlight that we looked at just the professional services that would have fallen under the types of services that McKinsey could provide. We've included some graphs in our report that we thought would help give a sense of where the McKinsey contracts fit in the bigger, broader Government of Canada procurement of professional services.

Government Operations committee  In the case where the minister was involved, the contract was being issued on a non-competitive basis. There's a certain threshold at which the public service can no longer authorize a non-competitive contract—I think it's $4.5 million—which is why a minister needed to be involved.

Government Operations committee  I'm going to see if Nicholas wants to add something here, but it's my understanding that the minister did not actually sign the contract. The minister just provided the authority to exceed the limit allowed by the public service. He's nodding in agreement.

Government Operations committee  I don't think I can answer how common it is across all the government departments. We saw, in this case, out of the 97 contracts, four chains. Those four chains involved 30 of the 97 contracts, but I'm not sure that this can be extrapolated across all government contracts.

Government Operations committee  I think it then comes back down to what was supposed to be the bigger, broader procurement process. It comes back to that initial question of what the need was that they were trying to meet or the service that they were trying to get, and then figuring out the right procurement process.

Government Operations committee  If you mean over the years that my office has done procurement audits, absolutely they have adopted them. In this case, I only issued one recommendation because I felt that the procurement ombud and the comptroller general, and the internal audit shops, who had done work from March 2023 until very recently, had addressed all of the other concerns.