1989 Report of the Auditor General of Canada

1989 Report

Appendix B—Financial Administration Act—Extracts from Part X

REPORT ON THE AUDIT OF QUARTERLY REPORTS ON CROWN CORPORATIONS TABLED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE TREASURY BOARD

Introduction. The Financial Administration Act requires the President of the Treasury Board to lay quarterly reports before each House of Parliament concerning the timing of tabling, by appropriate ministers, of annual reports and summaries of corporate plans and budgets of Crown corporations subject to the reporting provisions of Part X of the Act.

These quarterly reports allow Parliament to hold the appropriate ministers (and, ultimately, the Crown corporations) accountable for providing it, within the relevant statutory deadlines, with information required under the Financial Administration Act. Accordingly, each quarterly report is required to indicate the annual reports and the summaries of corporate plans, capital budgets and operating budgets (and amendments to them) that were to be tabled before each House during the quarter; the time at, before, or within which they were required to be tabled; and the time they were actually tabled.

Scope. I am required by subsection 152(2) of the Financial Administration Act, to attest to the accuracy of the information contained in the quarterly reports on Crown corporations tabled by the President of the Treasury Board. Accordingly, I have examined the quarterly reports for the four quarters indicated below:

	Tabled in Parliament
Quarter Ended	House of Commons	Senate
30 June 1988	18 August 1988	30 August 1988
30 September 1988	24 April 1989	2 May 1989
31 December 1988	11 May 1989	15 May 1989
31 March 1989	15 May 1989	16 May 1989

My examination included a review of the systems and procedures used by Treasury Board to monitor the tabling of the summaries and annual reports in each House of Parliament, a verification of the information contained in each of the quarterly reports, and such other tests and procedures as I considered necessary in the circumstances.

Conclusion. I have concluded that the four quarterly reports listed above contain all the required information about the timing of tabling, by the appropriate ministers, of Crown corporations' annual reports and summaries (and amendments to them) of corporate plans, capital budgets and operating budgets, and in my opinion, the information contained in the quarterly reports is accurate in all significant respects.

Kenneth M. Dye, F.C.A.

Auditor General of Canada

OTTAWA, 6 September 1989