Standing Committee on Public Accounts

HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, December 06, 2006 -

Mr. Shawn Murphy, MP, and Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, tabled the Committee’s 10th Report on the Auditor General’s May 2006 audit on the Canadian Firearms Program. This audit followed-up on the 2002 audit of financial reporting and looked at the operations of the Canada Firearms Centre as a whole.

The Auditor General found that progress had been made in setting up a separate agency. However, the Committee is concerned that Parliament does not have adequate information about the performance of the Firearms Program in order to make informed decisions about its design, implementation and future. The Auditor General also raised several concerns about data quality. The Committee is worried about the quality of data and believes the Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) is useful only insofar as it contains reliable and accurate information.

Most importantly, the Committee learned that work on an IT project, called CFIS II, has been halted and is not being used, even though it will cost $90 million. The Committee is appalled that so much money will be spent on a system that appears to have not even been necessary.

The Committee recommended that it be kept informed of progress in implementing the Auditor General’s recommendations, actions to be taken to address data quality issues, and the costs of Canadian Firearms Information System.