ARCHIVED - Treasury Board Submission Process Audit - September 2003

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1.0 Executive Summary

The objectives of the audit were to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the Treasury Board Submission process and identify areas of risk within the process for which controls should be in place. The audit included the following:

• Assessing whether the Treasury Board Secretariat's (the Secretariat) processes are effective in assisting departments and other government agencies with the preparation of submissions.
• Reviewing the existence and effectiveness of policies and controls in place to ensure appropriate, timely analysis and recommendations are made to Treasury Board.
• Assessing whether resources appear to be adequate and effective in undertaking the Treasury Board Submission process.

The scope of the audit included the Secretariat's processes supporting its role to assist departments with the preparation of Submissions and ensuring the Submission is ready to be presented to Treasury Board. For purposes of the audit, the Treasury Board Submission process included the activities performed by the Secretariat:

• Prior to a formal submission being submitted; and
• Once a formal Treasury Board submission from a department has been received by the Secretariat.

In addition, the audit assessed whether controls were in place to ensure that identified risks were addressed, and to ensure there is integrity throughout the entire process. It also assessed whether the Secretariat's processes were effective in assisting organizations with the preparation of submissions. The audit did not address the views of the President or other Treasury Board Ministers on the quality of either the submissions or the recommendations presented to them for approval.

The results from this audit indicated that that there is an established process in place at the Secretariat for review and approval of Submissions. A number of areas for improvement have been identified and recommendations made to address them. The more significant areas noted for improvement are:

• The development of additional formal policies and procedures to improve the consistency of process throughout the Secretariat, and
• Improvement in the processes established to support new analysts to understand their role and responsibilities prior to reviewing any Submissions.

Additional observations and recommendations are included in section 4.2 of this report.

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