2011 Spring Report and 2011 Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada

2011 Spring Report and 2011 Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada is planning to present its 2011 Spring Report and 2011 Status Report to the Speaker of the House of Commons on Thursday, 9 June 2011.

2011 Spring Report

Chapter 1, Expenditures for the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits. The chapter looks at the development of financial plans and budgets, funding requests, and recording of expenditures for the G8 and G20 summits. It also examines whether the amounts spent were used for the intended purposes—for security, policing, organizing, and hosting of the summits. The audit did not examine the effectiveness of the summits or the appropriateness of the level of security or hosting provided. Nor did it question the merit of goods and services identified by summit planners as requirements.

Chapter 2, G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund. The host region for the June 2010 G8 Summit received $50 million in federal funding under the G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund. The purpose was to fund projects sponsored through municipalities or the province that would help the region prepare for the 2010 G8 Summit, enhance local infrastructure, and showcase the natural beauty of the area for foreign dignitaries and media. The chapter looks at how the G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund was established, how it was funded, and how projects were selected. The audit did not examine the effectiveness of projects or the processes used by other government partners to assess projects and put them forward for approval.

Chapter 3, Reserve Force Pension Plan—National Defence. The chapter looks at the approach used by National Defence to plan and implement a pension plan for the Reserve Force. The audit also looked at whether the Department had the means necessary to operate the Plan, including an organizational structure, resources, and information systems and control procedures.

2011 Status Report

Chapter 1, Financial Management and Control and Risk Management, discusses efforts by the Treasury Board Secretariat and seven departments to improve financial reporting controls, and the financial management capacity and integrated risk management within government. It also looks at what the government has done to implement accrual-based budgeting and appropriations.

Chapter 2, Large Information Technology Projects, examines the Secretariat’s role in challenging large information technology projects, providing departments with guidance on effective management and oversight of their information technology projects, and supporting the oversight role of Treasury Board ministers. We also looked at the following five large projects and examined how well they were managed in four key areas:

Chapter 3, Internal Audit, looks at guidance and oversight provided to the internal audit function of departments and agencies by the Office of the Comptroller General. We also looked at a sample of internal audit activities, and determined whether 24 of the largest departments had established independent audit committees. The 24 departments represent about 95% of the government’s assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses.

Chapter 4, Programs for First Nations on Reserves, discusses the roles that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Health Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat, and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation play in the management of programs to improve the lives of First Nations and Inuit. The audit included the areas of education, water quality, housing, child and family services, land claim agreements, and reporting requirements.

Chapter 5, National Police Services—Royal Canadian Mounted Police, looks at the timely delivery of four national police services: Forensic Laboratory Services, the National DNA Data Bank, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, and Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services. The audit also looked at the governance of national police services as a whole and the approach to funding them.

Chapter 6, Regulating Medical Devices—Health Canada, discusses the Department’s timeliness for reviewing applications to allow the sale of new devices in Canada. It also looks at how Health Canada manages risks related to devices already on the market, and actions taken to fund the program and to increase cooperation with regulators in other countries.

Chapter 7, unlike the rest of the Status Report, is not a follow-up. It presents the main points of special examination reports on Crown corporations that we issued to the corporations’ boards of directors during 2010 and that the corporations have made public.