Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature—Special Examination—2017
Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature—Special Examination—2017
(Canadian Museum of Nature—Special Examination—2017)
26 October 2017
Michael Ferguson, Chartered Professional AccountantCPA, Chartered AccountantCA
Fellow Chartered Professional AccountantFCPA, Fellow Chartered AccountantFCA (New Brunswick)
Auditor General of Canada
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for this opportunity to discuss our special examination of the Canadian Museum of Nature. I am accompanied today by Etienne Matte, the Principal who was responsible for this audit.
As you know, a special examination seeks to determine whether a Crown corporation’s systems and practices provide reasonable assurance that its assets are safeguarded and controlled, its resources are managed economically and efficiently, and its operations are carried out effectively.
Our examination covered the period between July 2015 and April 2016.
Overall, we found that the Canadian Museum of Nature had in place good corporate management practices for strategic and operational planning and for performance measurement and reporting. However, we identified room for improvement in other areas. In particular, we found that the Board of Trustees did not receive the information it needed to monitor compliance with laws, regulations, and key corporate policies, and to monitor the implementation of risk mitigation strategies. We also found that the Corporation’s efforts to ensure the timely renewal of board appointments were not successful, something that was beyond the Corporation’s control.
Our examination identified that the Corporation had good systems and practices to manage its operations, most notably its research projects. However, it did not establish a plan, including priorities and achievable milestones, to identify and digitize specimens in its collections. This finding is important because the full scientific value of specimens can only be realized if they are identified, and the digitization of collections requires a long-term effort. Furthermore, the Corporation did not have a conservation plan for its collections and did not fully document its preservation practices and activities. As a result, it had to depend on the knowledge of staff members to ensure that conservation needs were met.
We also found insufficient project management practices for the replacement of two information systems supporting the Corporation’s operations: the admission system and the collections management system. These projects had undefined timelines, escalating cost estimates, lack of documentation, and limited information for senior management. This finding matters because sound project management practices ensure timely system replacement, within set budgets and with the expected benefits.
The Corporation agreed with all of our recommendations and prepared an action plan in response to our concerns. However, because our audit work was completed in April 2016, I cannot comment on any actions that the Corporation has taken since then.
Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.