Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates

Review of Estimates

8 February, 2005

John Wiersema, FCA
Deputy Auditor General

Thank you Mr. Chairman for inviting us here today. The Auditor General would have liked to have met with you today but she is, unfortunately, unavailable. She does, however, look forward to working with your Committee over the course of this Parliament. This afternoon I have with me Tom Wileman and Barry Leighton, our experts on Estimates matters.

The Office of the Auditor General does a considerable amount of work that may be of interest to this committee. We believe that we can add value to your deliberations. As this is our first time before your committee in this new Parliament, I would like to start off by briefly describing the Auditor General’s mandate as an Officer of Parliament.

Then, in terms of the Estimates process, I propose that we discuss how committees can make a difference. Finally, I would like to seek your views on an audit of the Expenditure Management System that we are currently planning; issues that we might consider during the planning of this audit.

We have a deck to structure the discussion. During this presentation, if the Chair permits, we would encourage members to ask questions or raise points as we go along.