Government Operations committee  The secretariat under past presidents, and we hope under the current president, has planned to launch a dialogue with parliamentarians about the quality of the information that's contained in the estimates. Accrual appropriations is one element; timeliness is another, which secretariat officials have been talking about in the past.

Government Operations committee  I am David Moloney, assistant secretary, expenditure management.

Government Operations committee  For the moment, no, but they want to find a way to improve the system.

Government Operations committee  If I could quote from the 1996 budget, “the government intends to move to full accrual accounting for budgeting and accounting purposes”. It did not mention appropriations, and it did not specify anything beyond that. So somewhat belatedly, we did move on a reporting basis, and we did move on a budgeting basis overall.

Government Operations committee  As regards your question on large businesses, the answer is no. We have direct access to private sector expertise. Last week, I attended a meeting of senior budget officials from the OECD which was held in Australia. This specific subject was addressed there. I had the opportunity to put questions to my counterparts from New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Government Operations committee  I'm not an accountant, so I don't have a professional accounting opinion on this. I believe it's fair to say that it is not a case of administrative inertia. In fact, we've been talking about very large changes. Included in the long story here have been large investments required in departmental financial systems.

Government Operations committee  I will add that we are extremely rigorous in reminding departments that they cannot spend a penny without Parliament's having voted in the year, so even when a government makes an announcement of an intention to spend within the year--let alone in future years--unless those funds were specifically provided in the main estimates, departments must wait until the supplementary estimates.

Government Operations committee  The study that PricewaterhouseCoopers prepared for us suggested that the cost to implement would range from a few tens of millions to as much as $200 million, so in the same order as the potential offsetting loss as estimated.

Government Operations committee  The study mentions three to five years.

Government Operations committee  The President of the Treasury Board has not yet been briefed on the study. We hope to be able to do so very soon.

Government Operations committee  It has not been published; it was received on March 31.

Government Operations committee  Those were precisely the results.

Government Operations committee  The study is not conclusive in terms of the point at which.... Let me start again. The study suggests there is value in increasing the use of accrual. The study is not conclusive as to the point to which one should proceed.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. I can provide the information I have, which is only partial. We may need to pursue it more afterwards. What's important, and the point I'm trying to get across, is that in our view the question is how far through the system of budgeting and then into appropriations to recommend going.

Government Operations committee  As to whether there is a will to do it, first I'll tell you about my responsibilities, which, among other things, are to ensure that the president of the Treasury Board presents budget estimates and appropriations to Parliament in a form that is comprehensible, full, valid and useful to parliamentarians.