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Special Examinations Manual
Purpose of the Manual
The Office currently has four product lines: annual audits of the financial statements of Crown corporations and other entities and of the Government of Canada; Special Examinations of Crown corporations; value-for-money (VFM) audits of departments and agencies and studies; and environment and sustainable development audits and studies. The Practice Development Committee of the Office approves policies, standards and expected practices for each product line, with the objective of ensuring that these standards are maintained at the highest professional level.
The Office's Comprehensive Auditing Manual (CAM) has been updated and delayered. The delayered CAM, portrayed in Exhibit 1, will henceforth consist of three product line manuals, together with the Office's Strategic Framework and Code of Professional Conduct, and will be electronically linked to other Office policies as appropriate.
This manual sets out the auditing policies that govern the conduct of Special Examinations of Crown corporations and provides guidance to examiners on the approach including compliance with the policies. The purposes of the manual are to:
- assist users to achieve the highest possible level of quality in Special Examinations;
- promote the highest possible level of professional competence in Office staff;
- provide a basis for measuring audit performance; and
- allow others outside the Office to gain a better perspective and understanding of the practices and professionalism of the Office.
This product manual is intended for Office practitioners for the conduct of all special examinations.
Exhibit 1: Updated CAM Framework
Scheduled Crown corporations. The Financial Administration Act (FAA) requires the board of directors of all Schedule III Part I and II Crown corporations and their wholly owned subsidiaries to cause a special examination to be carried out at least once every five years. Also, some wholly owned subsidiaries have been designated by Governor in Council to report their affairs as if they were parent Crown corporations.
Other Crown corporations. In addition, other Crown corporations exempt from Part X of the FAA may be subject to similar special examination provisions. For example, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation through revisions in its enabling legislation in 1991 (the Broadcasting Act) is required to have a special examination carried out in the same fashion as corporations subject to Part X of the FAA. As well, other exempt Crown corporations that do not have provisions for special examinations can and have requested through an Order in Council that the Office carry out a special examination on their corporation (e.g., National Arts Centre).
The manual is composed of four parts.
The first part contains Chapters 1 to 3 and provides context for special examinations through a review of the Crown corporation control and accountability framework, the nature of special examinations, and compliance requirements for the conduct of special examinations.
The second part contains Chapters 4 to 7 and deals with the key elements of planning a special examination, including understanding the business and corporate governance, selecting key areas for in-depth examination and criteria selection.
The third part comprises Chapter 8 and discusses the processes involved in the conducting phase of a special examination.
The fourth part comprises Chapter 9 and covers reporting the special examination.