Report of the Audit Committee to the Auditor General of Canada for the 2022–23 Fiscal Year
Chair’s message to the Auditor General of Canada
This is the annual report from the external members of the Audit Committee of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) for the year ended 31 March 2023. The report’s purpose is to provide an overview of the Audit Committee’s activities during the 2022–23 fiscal year.
Throughout this time, the Audit Committee has provided oversight of the OAG’s significant business and operational areas. Like many other government organizations, the OAG is currently facing many challenges, such as rapidly changing technologies, ongoing labour shortages, and transitioning to a hybrid work model. The independent external members met with the Auditor General and senior management multiple times throughout the year to support the Auditor General in the third year of her mandate.
Given the virtual working environment that was prompted by the pandemic, the committee had been meeting virtually since spring 2020. In August 2022, the committee resumed optional in-person attendance, and meetings evolved into a hybrid model. The committee had 8 meetings during the 2022–23 fiscal year.
The committee continued its regular business, including overseeing the OAG’s financial statements, internal controls, external audit, accountability reporting, compliance, and practice review and internal audit and also delivering on its enhanced governance and strategic risk management role.
Membership
The OAG Audit Committee Charter requires that the committee be composed of 3 voting members, all of whom are independent external members. Bruce Joyce, Suzanne Morris, and I are the continuing members from the previous year. This was my first year as Chair of the committee. This was also Bruce’s last year as a member of the committee after 12 years. The committee would like to thank Bruce for his leadership, contributions, and advice. Efforts are being made to find one or more new members to complement the existing committee to support the organization in its operations, modernization, and transformation.
Karen Hogan, Auditor General; Andrew Hayes, Deputy Auditor General; and Lissa Lamarche, Assistant Auditor General and Chief Financial Officer, continued to be members of the committee. In fall 2022, Vicki Clement replaced Lissa as acting Assistant Auditor General and Chief Financial Officer and attended meetings until the end of the year.
Julie Bastarache, Chief Audit Executive, and Paule‑Anny Pierre, Assistant Auditor General, regularly attended the committee’s meetings.
Charter
The committee regularly reviews its terms of reference as it continues to develop practices to serve the OAG effectively, and it annually reviews its charter to ensure that the charter aligns suitably with applicable policy requirements. In the 2022–23 fiscal year, on the advice of the Chief Audit Executive, the committee decided to postpone the review of its charter to do a full revamp in early 2023–24.
The committee’s work schedule, minutes, and supporting documentation demonstrate that it has addressed its key areas of responsibility, including values and ethics, risk management, management control framework, practice review and internal audit, external assurance providers, follow-up on management action plans, financial statements, and accountability reporting.
Priorities
The committee continually assesses emerging issues that are relevant to its oversight of significant business and operational areas. It fulfilled its roles and responsibilities under its charter and continued to streamline its work plan to facilitate “deep dive” discussions on significant operational and strategic areas. It continued its enhanced role to support the Auditor General, focusing on the priorities and challenges faced by the OAG. The committee also discussed and challenged senior management on several topics, including cybersecurity, digital transformation, governance, human resource management, performance audit selection, performance management, project management, and relationship management.
Observations
The briefings and reports presented to the committee during the 2022–23 fiscal year, together with the experience of previous years, have provided the committee with a sound understanding of the key issues the OAG faces. The committee found that management and staff were candid and clear on the challenges they face and were receptive to the committee members’ comments and suggestions.
The OAG usually sets high standards for the quality of its audit products and for having a satisfactory methodology for conducting reliable audits and studies. The committee cannot comment on whether the system of internal controls was satisfactory in the last year because this year’s report was delayed by delays with practice reviews. Moreover, as it works toward its strategic priorities, the OAG needs to continue to improve its efforts on relationship management, enhanced project management capabilities, and human resource management, including talent and change management and transformation.
Overall, the committee has observed that the OAG has a rational and systematic approach to addressing its mandate, monitoring results, and reporting to Parliament and Canadians.
Therefore, in keeping with section 19(a) of the OAG Audit Committee Charter, I respectfully submit this report to the Auditor General.
Anita Biguzs
Chair of the Audit Committee for the 2022–23 fiscal year
Office of the Auditor General of Canada
June 2023