Senator Gold, I appreciate you answering both my questions and the questions from my colleagues on the National Finance Committee regarding the Public Accounts of Canada three weeks ago. In response to your answer that day, I can confirm that we are aware that the reporting deadline is December 31, or within 15 days thereafter, but my concern is about timely access to financial documents and not legislated dates.

The public accounts are the government’s year-end financial reports that show what money the government collected and spent in the last fiscal year. We’re now eight months into the next fiscal year, and, as of yesterday, the Supplementary Estimates (B) have now been referred to the National Finance Committee, but we still don’t have the public accounts to compare requested funding for the fiscal year with what was actually spent the previous year.

Nearly a month later, my question is still this: Have the public accounts been signed yet?

Thank you. Three weeks ago you stated that the Treasury Board has committed to tabling the public accounts by October 15 beginning next year. It is not clear to me why they haven’t been signed this year.

On October 23, the Auditor General told the National Finance Committee that there were accounting issues to be resolved. Can you give me a sense of what type of accounting errors the government is attempting to reconcile and for which departments?