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“For the people who are currently with us, it’s clear that technology is something you need to retain them. The new staff we hire arrive with modern skills, but they aren’t able to use them because they’re in a workplace that is behind by 10 years,” Ricard added in an interview after the committee meeting.

This isn’t the first time the OAG has complained about a lack of funding in recent years. According to a National Post report last May, Ricard warned parliamentarians in the spring of 2019 that he had to cut down the number of annual audits to 14, from an average of 25.

The drop was mostly attributable to an increased workload imposed by the Trudeau government, who expanded the OAG’s mandate to include oversight of a plethora of new public agencies and projects. But no extra money accompanied the extra work.

Among the audits that were postponed were “important” verifications on combating cyber crime, protecting Canada’s North and the government’s travel system.

You can't have your budget going up and down every year

Nearly one year later, nothing has changed, he said. His office has once again requested an additional $10.8 million in the upcoming 2020-21 budget.

“If we get that new money, the main effect will be to increase the amount of audits to where we were at a few years ago,” he stated.

He also asked MPs to find a new and independent mechanism to adjust his funding in the future, though he stopped short of giving any examples.

“It is not appropriate for us to have to negotiate for our funding with the organizations we audit, he told MPs. But all we’re asking is that our budget be brought back to the same proportion of the government’s spending that it was back in 2011: 0.027 per cent.”