The Audit News Database contains over 150 procurement audits prepared by 26 different audit offices since 2009. For the purpose of this Focus On issue, we selected 19 of these audits for further analysis. We selected audits that had a strong focus on large procurement projects (defined as the acquisition of infrastructure, equipment or services with a value of at least $20M). We did not include audits of military procurement in our selection because we wanted to cover audit topics that would be relevant at all levels of government, not just for the federal government.

See List of Selected Audits of Large Procurement Projects

Sectors of activity

Procurement audits produced since 2009 have covered a wide variety of public sectors, including health (hospitals), education (schools), transportation infrastructure (railways, highways, bridges), sport infrastructures (sport centers, arenas) energy production (nuclear plants), IT systems and services, etc.

After analyzing the scope of the 19 selected audits, we determined that the audits could be classified under one of three categories:

• Procurement of goods and services using the traditional procurement approach
• Procurement of goods and services using Public Private Partnerships
• Procurement processes: Oversight Mechanisms and Expertise

For each of these categories, a summary description and examples of objectives, criteria, evidence sources, findings and recommendations can be found in each of the above sections.