What to Expect—An Auditee’s Guide to the Performance Audit Process

9. Interactions with departmental audit committees

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) supports initiatives that strengthen departmental oversight, including the requirement for external membership for departmental audit committees.

The OAG wants to work with departmental audit committees while maintaining its objectivity and preserving its independence from government.

The OAG welcomes the opportunity to

With respect to draft audit reports, the OAG does not confirm and validate fact-based audit information with departmental audit committees. These documents are finalized through the normal OAG process with appropriate entity officials.

The departmental audit committee is expected to

The deputy head may share OAG audit information with members of the departmental audit committee and is accountable for ensuring that this is done in a manner that protects the confidentiality of the information.

Senior OAG staff may participate in committee meetings as observers when invited by the committee chair. They will make every effort to appear if notified of the committee’s meeting schedule in advance. The Secretary of the Departmental Audit Committee is expected to notify OAG staff of the schedule.

At its discretion, the audit team may request advice from the audited entity on who would be useful external advisers on the audit. If the team has any concern about whether a potential adviser has a conflict of interest, it may seek the advice of the entity.

When requested by the audit team, the entity is expected to provide advice to help identify potential external advisors. The entity may wish to consult with its departmental audit committee.