Public Accounts committee  The ultimate goal of the committee is to improve public administration and root out any waste of public funds. I think that if you always have that as your end goal and as the main point that you're trying to achieve, it can help to give you a vision that keeps you away from the merits of the policy and questioning that [Technical difficulty—Editor].

Public Accounts committee  Sure. I would put [Technical difficulty—Editor] of the public accounts committee is to ensure that public money is spent effectively. If you hold that as the goal that you're reaching, it can help to steer you away from falling down the holes of the merits of policy. You may come across issues where you have a lot of policy ideas around what comes up.

Public Accounts committee  We are available to provide more training should you wish. We do have a lot of resources on our website. I would direct you to our pocket cards or quick reference cards. I believe the clerk has shared those with you. Those have the most condensed information we have. We also have a good practice guide there that you may find useful.

Public Accounts committee  Sure. If you refer to slide number five, you will see what we often refer to as the accountability triangle, with Parliament on top, government and the audit. The relationship among those is very important, because to have an accountability system you need all three actors working together.

Public Accounts committee  Just to add to that, it is okay to ask the Auditor General to look into a given topic. Doing that will carry more weight if the group is unanimous in requesting it. Auditors general often get requests from political parties to look at particular things, and my understanding is that they take all requests they receive seriously, but they do have a great commitment to ensuring that the audits are non-partisan and evidence-based.

Public Accounts committee  Ranking committees can be very difficult, because a committee could be effective in one Parliament and not effective in the other, without any changes other than the members. A committee can go through a very effective phase and then slip off into something that is ineffective.

Public Accounts committee  Just to give an example of the respect your committee has, you often get [Technical difficulty—Editor] delegations so they can observe the work of the federal committee. I know that some come through our program with our international partners, and I know that on a fairly regular basis your committee is approached by other countries as well.

Public Accounts committee  In terms of the effectiveness and the efficiency of the committee and who that is up to—that's up to you. It's up to the members when they walk into the room at every single committee meeting. Do you want this to be an effective meeting, or do you want to run it off the rails? Do you want to clog up the questioning in a hearing with softball questions, things that aren't really digging down to the root cause, or do you want to be digging down to that root cause and being effective?

Public Accounts committee  I couldn't speak to that specifically, but I do know that if you as a committee are finding that the information you're being given is not in a format that is digestible to you, then you can speak to the audit office or the comptroller's office and request that the information come to you in a different format.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, and to add to that, I would say, have very clear recommendations in your reports, with deadlines, and then stay on top of that. If the committee gives them a recommendation, you can ask them to report back to you at given intervals, and then you are on top of the progress. That tends to deliver results.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. I can take that. By “big picture”, in a sense we also mean what's going on in the context of everything. When you hold a hearing and you're asking those questions, you'll have two types of witnesses. One will often be the Auditor General, and one will be the audited department.

Public Accounts committee  Sure, thank you. I'm happy to go into any of the details on good practices or how you might want to achieve those. A key thing I want to leave with you when you're considering your work on the committee is that when you're going into a hearing, it's very important to have a shared purpose for that hearing, so you know as a committee—as a group—what you want to accomplish.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. When I looked at the committee and realized just how much experience there was in the room, I was very impressed. There's a lot of experience on committees. I'm very glad that you have invited us to speak to you, even if you might wonder, “I've done this so many times.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely. Every jurisdiction has a slightly different process for choosing not only the audit reports but also who comes to the committee. In good practice, it is most appropriate to choose the most relevant senior official. That is the deputy minister, because they are the accounting officer.

Public Accounts committee  The process for the federal committee, as I understand it, is that you will choose from among the audit reports. It's my understanding that each party will choose the ones they see as being the most relevant. You can do that in consultation with the Auditor General, who typically won't ever want to pick favourites on an audit.