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ARCHIVED - RPP 2007-2008
Office of the Auditor General of Canada


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Section II—Strategic framework and planning priorities

Our strategic framework and results chain

The long-term strategic outcome of the Office of the Auditor General is to contribute to better managed government programs and better accountability to Parliament through our legislative auditing. We use a results chain to describe our strategic outcome and to show how we expect to make a difference. The results chain links what we do (conduct audits and other assessments) and what we deliver (audits, studies, opinions, information, and advice) to the results we expect to achieve in the short, medium, and long terms. It also describes the various stakeholders and their contributions to improving government operations (see Section III—Supplementary information).

The strategic framework of the Office of the Auditor General presents our vision and our values that guide our work (Exhibit 3).


Exhibit 3—The strategic framework of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Our vision

An independent audit office serving Parliament, widely respected for the quality and impact of our work.

We promote

  • accountable government,
  • an ethical and effective public service,
  • good governance,
  • sustainable development, and
  • the protection of Canada's legacy and heritage.

We do this by

  • conducting independent audits and studies that provide objective information, advice, and assurance to Parliament, the government, and Canadians;
  • working collaboratively with legislative auditors, federal and territorial governments, and professional organizations; and
  • providing a respectful work place in which our diverse workforce can strive for excellence and realize their full career potential.

Our values are

  • serving the public interest,
  • independence and objectivity,
  • commitment to excellence,
  • respectful workplace,
  • trust and integrity, and
  • leading by example.

Our program activity

The Office has one program activity—legislative auditing. Legislative auditing, as noted earlier, consists of eight subactivities, two of which are supporting activities: professional practices and audit services. The four largest subactivities are

(1) performance audits and studies;

(2) the audit of the summary financial statements of the Government of Canada;

(3) financial audits of Crown corporations, territorial governments, and other organizations; and

(4) special examinations of Crown corporations.

Table 2 under Section III—Financial tables provides summary information on the Office's financial and human resources and subactivities.

Our planning priorities

The Office has identified four strategic challenges that were taken into consideration when setting out the planning priorities for the coming year.

Integrating changes to professional standards. A crucial aspect of the Office's success is the calibre and professionalism of its staff. All staff must be fully trained, apprised of new developments at the professional level, and within the public service, and provided with clear guidance as to how to carry out their work.

With this objective in mind, the Office has committed to four areas of activity for the coming fiscal year.

  • First, the Office will expand the use of professional update sessions to include all types of audits. In past years, these sessions were limited to financial audits.
  • Second, efforts will be made to improve collaboration between the professional development team, the methodology teams, and Office specialists.
  • Third, the role of our Learning Committee to provide advice on professional development content and process will be clarified.
  • Finally, the role of the specialists will be reviewed in terms of what part they should play in training and methodology development.

Integrating changes to our mandate. The Office has recently had to take into consideration additional factors in its audit selection and planning efforts. In 2005, Parliament expanded the mandate of the Office through the Budget Implementation Act. This Act amends both the Auditor General Act and the Financial Administration Act—the main pieces of legislation that govern our work.

  • The expanded mandate allows the Office to include in our performance audits certain foundations that have received large amounts of federal funding. These foundations are non-profit corporations that are entrusted with public money to fulfill significant public policy roles.
  • We were also named as auditors of three additional Crown corporations—Canada Post, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board—making us the auditors or joint auditors for all but two of the government's Crown corporations. The excluded Crown corporations are the Bank of Canada and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. These three Crown corporations will be included in our next round of special examinations, along with a further four that are now subject to special examination requirments: Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, The National Arts Centre, and the International Development Research Centre.
  • Most recently, the Federal Accountability Act has expanded the Office's mandate even further by including other types of organizations that have received relatively smaller amounts of federal funding; we rarely expect to use this new mandate. It is management's job, in departments and Crown corporations, to ensure that grants, contributions, and loans, provided to individuals or institutions outside the federal government achieve their intended purposes. Our role is to determine whether appropriate systems and procedures are in place and how well they are working. We report the results to Parliament and provide recommendations where improvement is needed.

The Office will integrate these mandate changes into the risk assessment and audit planning cycle during the coming year.

As a result of the expanded mandate and other new and additional work, the Office is seeking an increase in funding for 2007–08 of approximately $4 million for ongoing expenses and about $2 million for one-time investments in technology. This additional funding will be used for work related to the following:

  • seven additional Crown corporations now subject to special examinations requirements under the Financial Administration Act;
  • five extra financial audits including three Crown corporations, the Public Service Commission, and the National Research Council;
  • the audit of control procedures at the Canada Revenue Agency in response to requirements under new federal/provincial tax collection agreements;
  • the increasing number of performance audits in each of the three territories to better serve their legislatures;
  • strategic investments in recruitment, methodology, and training;
  • the replacement of our existing financial systems and the implementation of the Government of Canada's information-management-system policies.

Contributing to good practices in accountability, governance, and effective public service. From time to time, we note issues or trends that emerge from a number of our audits. One current example is the weight of controls and reporting requirements impacting the delivery of federal government programs. In many respects, we believe that fewer rules, but rules that are consistently applied, would be more effective. In the coming year, the Office will identify options as to how it might appropriately contribute to addressing this issue.

Investing in recruitment and retention. In the coming years, the Office will need to strengthen its recruitment and retention efforts. Workload will increase due to an expanded audit mandate. Rising turnover and retirement rates and increased recruitment by federal departments will add to the demand for available talent. The Office has started developing a multi-year recruitment and retention strategy to respond to these pressures. The strategy will be accompanied by additional investment in methodology and training.

An employee survey carried out in 2006 indicated that 82 percent of staff believe that the Office is a good place to work and that 92 percent are proud to be a part of the Office. These results were very good, and unlikely to improve. Therefore, our goal is to maintain these satisfaction levels with a particular focus on continuing to strengthen our people management skills and processes. A corporate action plan has been developed that addresses issues in six different areas (Exhibit 4). The employee survey will be repeated every two years.


Exhibit 4—Corporate action plan in response to the 2006 employee survey

A corporate action plan was developed that covers the following areas:

  • supervisory effectiveness,
  • training of employees,
  • the promotion process,
  • career development,
  • staffing of positions, and
  • effective communications.

Working internationally. A further planning priority of the Office for the coming year is our international strategy. The strategy ensures that the Office's involvement with international organizations and in conducting audits of international institutions is aligned with the interests of Parliament and the Government of Canada.

The strategy has the following four goals for the 2007–09 planning period:

  • Increase our involvement in international standard setting and the adoption of international standards.
  • Develop with the Canadian International Development Agency an understanding of how we can best target our capacity-building efforts, consistent with the government's international development priorities.
  • Re-focus our knowledge-sharing activities to provide maximum benefit to our auditors.
  • Work with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada to promote better managed and accountable international institutions through our involvement in auditing international organizations.

The Office is continuing discussions with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada about the role of the Office in the audit of United Nations agencies. Our audit mandate for UNESCO ended in 2006–07. With the support of the department, we have recently submitted a bid to become the auditor of the International Labour Organization (ILO) commencing in 2008.

The Auditor General will conclude her term as the Chair of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). Over the coming year we will be working to ensure a smooth transition with the incoming Chair.

Integrating sustainable development. In addition to the strategic challenges noted above, the Office's 2007–09 Sustainable Development Strategy reconfirms our efforts to integrate environmental and sustainable development issues into our audit planning and conduct. Exhibit 9 under Section III—Supplementary information sets out the Office's key commitments and targets related to sustainable development for the coming year.

Our plans and performance targets

Serving Parliament. To best serve Parliament, our primary client, we have set out a parliamentary strategy that includes the following four objectives:

  • communicate our messages clearly to Parliament,
  • promote the role and work of the Office,
  • ensure that our work remains relevant and useful to parliamentarians, and
  • maintain the Office's credibility with Parliament.

We measure our overall success by surveying parliamentarians and monitoring parliamentary responses to our reports. In 2007, we plan to survey those parliamentarians most closely involved in the review of our reports and to continue administering this survey annually.

One of the most important factors determining whether or not the Office is successfully fulfilling its mission is the degree to which our reports are seen as offering objective assurance and information to Parliament and the government, along with recommendations that guide corrective actions. If the reports reflect the public interest, while maintaining a high degree of independence and objectivity, the Office will be seen as an organization with integrity and as an organization that can be trusted.

To this end, the Office has set out objectives to ensure the usefulness of our reports to parliamentarians. The specific targets related to these objectives are set out in Section III—Supplementary information. The results related to these targets are tracked using a survey of parliamentarians to be carried out annually.

The specific areas of enquiry included on the survey include whether

  • the findings included in the reports are objective and fair,
  • the recommendations included in the reports are realistic and focused,
  • the reports and recommendations are clearly written, and
  • the Office's appearances before parliamentary committees are seen as adding value.

In addition to the plans and targets set out with respect to our role in serving Parliament, the Office has also established plans and performance targets for each of our four major subactivities: performance audits; financial audits; the audit of the summary financial statements of the Government of Canada (public accounts); and special examinations.

Conducting performance audits. Our performance audits are published up to four times a year in reports of the Auditor General of Canada and the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. In 2007–08, we plan to report on the findings of 28 performance audits.

The Office regularly carries out surveys involving the organizations we audit. The results from these surveys help the Office analyze its performance and plan for any necessary correction or improvements. Following the tabling of a performance audit report, each organization that was subject to these audits is surveyed. The questions cover areas of interest such as

  • whether our work is seen to add value,
  • whether the users of our reports are engaged in the audit process, and
  • whether the organizations we audit respond to our findings.

Details of the specific targets related to these areas of study are provided under Section III—Supplementary information.

In addition to our surveys, we also consult with the organizations we audit as part of our planning process. This process is a risk-based approach to audit planning that involves the development of a multi-year audit plan for each significant federal government organization subject to audit. It involves discussions with key senior managers, as well as a review of critical documentation, of the entities subject to audit.

The Office has also established measures and targets to ensure that our performance in terms of delivering reports in accordance with our quality management framework, on time and on budget is being appropriately tracked for the purpose of diagnosis and improvement, should some of the targets be missed. Details of these targets are included under Section III—Supplementary information.

Conducting financial audits. The Office has statutory responsibilities for the audit of the summary financial statements of the Government of Canada, the financial statements of the territorial governments, and the financial statements of federal and territorial Crown corporations and other entities. This year we will conduct more than 130 financial audit and other assurance engagements.

We conduct various surveys of these organizations to measure the perceived relevance and usefulness of our audit work. Every two years, the organizations that have been subject to a financial audit during that period are surveyed.

Details of the specific set targets related to these areas of study as well as to other areas of performance related to the completion of our financial audits are provided under Section III—Supplementary information.

Conducting special examinations. The Office performs about 40 examinations over each five-year period (cycle). We are currently concluding the fourth cycle of special examinations of Crown corporations. In 2007–08 we will report the special examinations of the organizations listed under Section III—Supplementary information.

As with our performance audits and financial audits, the organizations subject to special examinations are surveyed about the relevance and usefulness of our work. Details of the specific set targets related to these surveys, as well as targets related to other areas of management, are provided under Section III—Supplementary information.

Providing a respectful workplace. Our values of a respectful workplace, trust and integrity, and leading by example define how we conduct our work and ourselves. In addition, the Office strongly supports and integrates in all of its human resource activities the values of competency, representativeness, non-partisanship, fairness, employment equity, transparency, flexibility, affordability, and efficiency. Since 2005, 50 percent of managers' performance pay has been tied to their ability to manage their human resources.

The Office is tracking its progress against a set of targets related to creating a respectful workplace. The specifics of these targets are included in Section III—Supplementary information.

Working collaboratively. Within Canada, the Office works with the 10 provincial legislative auditors through the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors (CCOLA) to

  • share information and experience on matters of mutual concern,
  • develop audit methodology and professional practices,
  • improve the quality and performance of legislative auditing in Canada, and
  • collaborate with provincial legislative audit offices on issues that cross jurisdictional lines.

Office staff are also involved in many professional organizations in Canada. Currently the Office is represented on two Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants committees, by

  • the Deputy Auditor General on the Public Sector Accounting Board, which sets accounting standards for the Canadian public sector; and
  • one of our assistant auditors general, who sits as the chair of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.