Special Examination—Great Lakes Pilotage Authority—Three significant gaps found in audit of Great Lakes Pilotage Authority

Special Examination—Great Lakes Pilotage AuthorityThree significant gaps found in audit of Great Lakes Pilotage Authority

Ottawa, 16 March 2018—The Great Lakes Pilotage Authority made public the results of an audit conducted over the last year by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Under the Financial Administration Act, federal Crown corporations are subject to such audits by the Auditor General at least every 10 years.

The audit found a significant deficiency in Board oversight. For example, the Board insufficiently monitored some executive expenses, and it did not ensure that internal audits were carried out on an ongoing basis.

The audit also found a significant deficiency in the appointment of members of the Corporation’s Board of Directors by the government. The Corporation does not control the process to appoint Board members, but delayed appointments meant that by March 2018, the Board was at a high risk of having the majority of its seven seats vacant or held by members with expired terms.

With regards to Great Lakes Pilotage Authority’s operations, the audit found a significant deficiency in the Corporation’s monitoring of the transits of Canadian ships in the Great Lakes region. The Corporation could not justify how often or how widely it monitored those transits. As a result, the Corporation did not know whether the monitoring it performed was effective to minimize safety risks.

The audit report will be included in the Reports of the Auditor General of Canada to Parliament in Spring 2018. It is available on the link to a portable document format (PDF) fileCrown Corporation’s website.

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