Departmental and Agency Financial Statements (DFS)

Message sent on behalf of Mrs. Suzie Gignac, Executive Director, Government Accounting Policy and Reporting, Office of the Comptroller General

The purpose of this communication is to advise you of the reporting requirements related the Departmental and Agency Financial Statements for the year ending March 31, 2011.

Departmental and Agency Financial Statements (DFS)

Departments and agencies are reminded that their financial statements are to be published as part of the Departmental Performance Report (DPR) process. Instructions on their publication will be included in the preparation guide for the 2010-2011 DPR. 

Review of draft DFS and due dates

Based on our experience of several years of annual reviews, it is now believed that DFS have reached a stage of quality and maturity that no longer warrant a full scope review by OCG of draft departmental financial statements for all departments. Consequently, we have decided to move to an approach based on risk in determining the scope and extent of 2010-2011 DFS draft reviews and the number of departments for which a review will be performed. Our review will focus on departments that are new adopters of the revised TBAS 1.2 and departments that will be subject to the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) assessment during the fall.

Based on this new approach, we wish to advise you of the following reporting requirements:

1. Departments subject to a review by OCG of their draft DFS include departments that a) will be part of the MAF assessment process during the fall and b) are new adopters of the revised TBAS 1.2. All departments falling in either of these two categories, except the entities that are audited on a stand alone basis, are required to submit:
   • An unsigned version of the financial statements (i.e. near final draft) in the language of their choice to the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG), no later than June 17, 2011 Comments will be provided within five weeks of reception date.
2. Departments not falling under the previously mentioned two categories are not subject to a review by OCG and are not required to submit their draft DFS.
3. All departments are required to submit to the OCG:
   • A final signed electronic version no later than August 31, 2011. This extended date gives more time than in previous years to allow departments to process post-closing entries, if necessary, as a result of errors found during the Public Accounts audit. Only one version (French or English) of the departmental financial statements is to be forwarded to the OCG.

Entities that are currently being audited on a stand alone basis are not required to send their draft to the OCG; only a final signed version should be sent, along with the auditor's report, once available.

All departments must use the revised TBAS 1.2 to prepare their financial statements for the 2010-11 fiscal year. To assist with the preparation of the financial statements, please refer to revised TBAS 1.2.

Your departmental financial statements are to be forwarded to:

DepartmentalFinStatements-Etatsfinministeriels@tbs-sct.gc.ca

Should you have any questions related to the departmental financial statements please contact Anne-Marie Dionne at 613-952-1004 or Anne-Marie.Dionne@tbs-sct.gc.ca or Marcel Lalande at 613-957-9853 or Marcel.Lalande@tbs-sct.gc.ca or Alexandre St-Germain at 613-952-0896 or Alexandre.St-Germain@tbs-sct.gc.ca.