F-35 Committee Recap: Second Third verse, same as the first: The (Re)Return of the Auditor General

Recap:  He came, he saw, he .... said pretty much the same thing that he's been saying all along on the need to keep everyone involved in the procurement in the loop, including disclosing full life-cycle costs, while following the rules and exercising appropriate due diligence in all matters.

And as soon as Auditor General Michael Ferguson wrapped up his third F-35-related opening statement since the release of his report, committee members followed his example, and performed what amounted to the live-action equivalent of a highlight reel for the next hour or so.

Government MPs did their collective level best to get Ferguson to give a probationary thumbs up to the much-vaunted 7 Point F-35 Generic Fighter Jet Action! Plan, which he has consistently declined to do on the not unreasonable grounds that he hasn't yet gotten to evaluate how well it worked, what with the future being in the future, and not now,  as well as confirm that no money has been spent, which he once again pointed out, albeit politely, is not, in fact, the case.

Meanwhile, on the opposition side of the table, members made similar efforts to get Ferguson to endorse their talking points with similarly limited success, although the AG did defend himself -- or, more accurately, his office and the numbers that it used to provide the report -- against the implied suggestion from Deputy Defence Minister Robert Fonberg that he'd muddled the math somehow.

Not surprisingly, that sparked a request -- not a motion, but a request -- from the NDP that Fonberg, too, be invited to make a third appearance before the committee at a future date in order to respond to AG's response to his response to the report.

(Aside to Public Accounts committee planners: Is there any practical reason why you can't simply invite Fonberg and Ferguson back to the table for a joint session? Sure, it's a wee bit unorthodox, but not unprecedented -- check the transcript from this very committee's past investigation into the RCMP pension scandal, and you'll find plenty of examples of simultaneous appearances by not-entirely-friendly witnesses.)

After the F-35 Q&A wrapped up, Ferguson spent the second hour doing his best to assuage opposition-held -- or, at least, claimed -- concern that the voluntary cost-cutting exercise undertaken by the Office of the Auditor General will have a catastrophic impact on his oversight powers, which he maintains is simply not the case. In fact, his office actually requested that it be stripped of the requirement to audit the financial records and performance reports of various agencies -- including Parks Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

He did, however, seem taken aback by one contention put forward by lone Liberal MP Gerry Byrne -- namely, that at least two regional development agencies, FedNor and ACOA,  are plotting to eliminate internal auditing services to save money, an alleged initiative on which his office has, it seems, not been consulted, and one that would raise flags as far as potential risk areas.

Finally, parliamentary secretary Andrew Saxton managed to circumvent a potentially contentious NDP-backed motion to study the OAG-related provisions of the omnibudget bill, which left the opposition side grumbling in frustration over the move to preemptively impose in camera secrecy on the next scheduled meeting.