Opening Statement before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
2022–23 Departmental Results Report and 2024–25 Departmental Plan of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada
18 April 2024
Karen Hogan, Fellow Chartered Professional AccountantFCPA
Auditor General of Canada
Mr. Chair, we are pleased to have this opportunity to discuss the work of our office, including our most recent departmental reports. I would like to acknowledge that this hearing is taking place on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people. With me today are Andrew Hayes, Deputy Auditor General; Paule‑Anny Pierre, Assistant Auditor General, Corporate Planning; and Jean‑René Drapeau, Chief Financial Officer.
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada serves Canada primarily through auditing and other work that assists Parliament in its authorization and oversight of government spending and operations. We provide Parliament and the territorial legislatures with independent and objective information, advice, and assurance about government financial statements and the management of government programs. We also assist boards of Crown corporations and audit committees in overseeing the management of government activities. The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development assists me by focusing on the environment and sustainable development.
We also support the development of legislative auditing and accounting standards and contribute to improving public sector auditing in Canada and internationally.
2022–23 Departmental Results Report
Let me turn first to our 2022–23 Departmental Results Report. We provided this report to Parliament in November 2023. As shown in our financial statements, our net operating cost was approximately $144 million, and we employed the equivalent of 732 full‑time employees.
With these resources, we completed financial audits, performance audits, special examinations of Crown corporations, and other reports. In total, we delivered 117 audit reports to federal and territorial legislatures and boards of Crown corporations.
In addition, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development delivered the annual report on environmental petitions and several other reports related to sustainable development and climate change and began work on additional reporting requirements under the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.
As part of our follow-up work, we updated our online dashboard, which provides a snapshot of the progress that selected departments and agencies achieved in areas we previously audited.
As we do every year, we audited the financial statements of 90 federal and territorial government organizations and Crown corporations, including those of the Public Accounts of Canada. We issued clean opinions on 87 of these financial statements. We also presented our annual commentary on our financial audit work.
Our Departmental Results Report presents indicators that measure our performance and the impact of our audit work. One of the ways that we have historically assessed the impact of our performance audit work is through the level of parliamentary engagement with our reports. In the 2022–23 fiscal year, parliamentary committees reviewed 88% of our federal and territorial performance audit reports, up from 80% in the prior year. I want to thank the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for reviewing all performance audit reports referred to it during this period and for reviewing 2 reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
Internally, in 2022–23, we made progress on initiatives to review and renew the foundations of our work. This included enhancing our process for selecting performance audit topics to reinforce the relevance of our work for Canadians, legislators, and the entities we audit. We also made progress on modernizing our IT infrastructure, reducing our environmental footprint, and supporting a healthy and inclusive workplace culture.
2024–25 Departmental Plan
I would like to move on now to our Main Estimates and our Departmental Plan for the next fiscal year. In the previous Departmental Plan, we introduced our updated departmental results framework. This framework articulates revised results and the indicators we will use to measure our progress. In this Departmental Plan, we added targets to our indicators, and we will be reporting on the results of these indicators for the first time in our next Departmental Results Report.
For the 2024–25 fiscal year, our total budget is approximately $128 million. With these resources, we plan to employ the equivalent of 770 full‑time employees. During this period, we plan to issue 90 financial audits, 25 performance audits, and 3 special examinations. These reports are planned on a wide breadth of topics, such as cybersecurity of government networks and systems, the Canada Emergency Business Account, and critical minerals and batteries.
During the 2024–25 fiscal year, we will continue to work on several ongoing internal initiatives, such as our engagement with interested parties, our transformation journey, and initiatives to sustain and further develop a skilled, diverse, and engaged workforce. All of these initiatives are fundamental to delivering value to those we audit and meeting the needs of legislators and people living in Canada.
Mr. Chair, I would like to acknowledge the committed, hardworking, and devoted team of professionals in my office. I am incredibly proud of the excellent work we deliver together.
We thank the committee for its ongoing support and use of our work. We would be pleased to answer the committee’s questions.