Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates

Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic

29 May 2020

Karen Hogan
Assistant Auditor General
and Auditor General of Canada nominee

Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting us to discuss the role of the Auditor General in examining the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With me today is Andrew Hayes, Deputy Auditor General and Interim Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.

As background, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada has received 3 requests for audits from the House of Commons since Parliament resumed in January. We have informed the Speaker of the House that we will do these 3 audits.

First, on January 29, the House of Commons adopted a motion calling on our office to conduct an audit of the government’s Investing in Canada plan and to report our findings no later than 1 year following the adoption of the motion.

Then, on March 13, an order made by the House of Commons called on our office to conduct an audit of special warrants issued under the Financial Administration Act and to report our findings no later than June 1, 2021. We understand that no special warrants have been issued to date.

Lastly, on April 11, the House of Commons adopted a motion requesting that we conduct an audit of the COVID-19 emergency response taken by the government, and to report our findings no later than June 1, 2021. That order also called on the government to take the measures that are necessary to ensure that our office has sufficient resources to conduct the work that we have been asked to do by the House of Commons.

We have been monitoring the initiatives that the government has been introducing to respond to the pandemic, including the spending related to protecting health and safety, support to individuals and businesses, and other liquidity support and capital relief.

We also believe that it is important to consider elements of emergency preparedness and early response actions. This may allow us to identify good practices and areas for improvement in case there is a future wave to this pandemic or to be ready for a future pandemic that may arise.

We welcome any input that the committee may have on areas that we could examine as part of our COVID-19 audit work.

On April 28, we informed the Speaker of the House that we are prioritizing COVID-19 audit work and the audit of the Investing in Canada plan. Given the nature and extent of the work that we believe is required to conduct these audits, and in light of our limited resources, we had to revisit the timing for completing and reporting on the other performance audit work that we had planned.

On that basis, we informed the Speaker of the House that we have had to delay all other performance audit work that is not related to the motions adopted by the House of Commons.

Of course, decisions to postpone planned audit work are difficult to make because the topics we select for our performance audits are important to parliamentarians and Canadians. However, our limited resources have prevented us from conducting some of that important work. Now that we need to postpone this work further, we don’t know when we will be able to get to it.

As a final point, I wish to emphasize that we are fully aware that many departments and agencies are on the front line, and they are devoting tremendous amounts of time and resources to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are mindful of their operational realities. We have been coordinating with senior public servants to minimize the risk that our audit work could divert their attention away from the support and services that they need to provide to Canadians.

In these challenging times, I want to acknowledge the commitment and engagement of Canadians as they deal with this pandemic, including members of the federal public service and our office’s staff.

We are ready to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you.