Background

The organization was founded in 1980 as the Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation – Fondation canadienne pour la verification integrée during a period of growth of comprehensive and value-for-money auditing mandates across the federal, provincial and municipal legislative audit offices in Canada. In 1995, our Board legally changed the name to CCAF-FCVI Inc. This was done to maintain the then-familiar acronym, but remove reference to “comprehensive auditing”, terminology that was no longer commonly used and did not well reflect the Foundation’s expanded focus on parliamentary oversight, performance reporting, risk and control, and other accountability-related concepts.

In 2016, following adoption of our Strategic Plan 2015-2020, we carried out a review of the CCAF brand to better understand the way our stakeholders perceive us. We learned that we have good brand recognition among our members and the organizations and individuals we routinely work with; they recognize the CCAF brand and the value associated with it. We also learned, however, that our ability to communicate the scope and focus of our work, expand our reach, and work with new stakeholders is significantly hampered by having a name that has no inherent meaning.

Following thoughtful and rigorous evaluation of a number of possible names, the Board unanimously decided on a new name at its August 30, 2016 meeting, and the new name was approved by Members on February 28 2017.

Our new name was carefully chosen. We chose to retain the words ‘Canadian’ to give us a clear national identity and “Foundation” to reflect our not-for-profit status and research orientation.

Our selection of “Accountability” reflects a long-standing belief in the importance of accountability in the public sector: It has been a recurring and persistent theme through our 40 years of research and programming. We believe government is accountable to its citizens for the way it uses public resources and delivers public goods and services. Further, for accountability to work properly, we believe all parties to the parliamentary accountability relationship - oversight bodies, public sector departments and organizations, and auditors – play important and interdependent roles. These relationships are commonly portrayed in the “accountability triangle” presented below. Our logo stylistically represents our commitment to the three corners of the accountability triangle.

Our decision to include the term “Audit” in our name recognizes the particularly important role of audit and public sector auditors in the accountability relationship.

Finally, we felt that “Audit and Accountability” best embrace the breadth, scope and focus of our future direction and ambition.

The Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation builds on the rich and productive 37-year history of the CCAF and its many accomplishments. For example, we have

• trained more than 8000 performance auditors in Canada through delivery of over 400 performance audit and related training courses;
• advanced the state of practice of Public Accounts Committees in Canada and abroad, having delivered over 50 workshops based on our seminal “boxed set” of guides and tools for strengthening parliamentary oversight (including the core publication Attributes of Effective Public Accounts Committees);
• built capacity in legislative audit offices in 53 developing countries, graduating over 250 international “Fellows” (some of whom have gone on to become Auditors General in their country), delivering more than 70 in-country performance audit training courses;
• staged or supported over 50 conferences or symposia reaching more than 12,000 individuals;
• released more than 75 research publications, guidance documents and discussion papers; and
• entered more than 5500 audits and other documents into our Audit News Database.

The new Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation will remain a premier education, research and capacity-building organization dedicated to strengthening public sector performance audit, oversight and accountability in Canada and abroad. We are uniquely positioned and focused in our domain, with unrivalled capacity, knowledge and experience.

Our work is focused on three strategic goals:

• Advance knowledge, understanding and practice;
• Strengthen the knowledge and skills of performance auditors and oversight bodies;
• Encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and discussion on issues and practices.

To achieve our mission and goals, we work with our many members, partners, and stakeholders:

• Canadian legislative auditors, other performance auditors, and their organizations
• International supreme audit institutions and their regional associations
• Oversight bodies, senior public officials, and other users/preparers of performance information
• Professional bodies that provide standards, guidance and professional development to performance auditors
• Development agencies that support the application of our work in selected developing countries
• Academia and non-governmental organizations.

We provide value and direct benefits to our members and partners through innovative, leading-edge products and services. These include:

• Training courses, workshops and professional development opportunities for auditors and oversight bodies;
• Methodology, guidance, tools, and, information products;
• Research;
• Data and information sharing;
• Conferences and events for knowledge-sharing and learning;
• International Internships and Fellowships; and
• Community building and mentoring.

We also strive to contribute to the greater public good, helping to strengthen Canada’s overall systems for accountability, through parliamentary or other oversight bodies, and the reliance that Canadians can place on them.

Over the past 37 years, and continuing today, we have benefited greatly from the funding, involvement and support of Canada's legislative audit offices, the accounting profession, private sector accounting and audit firms, the Treasury Board of Canada, federal, provincial and territorial comptroller general and internal audit organizations, Canada's municipal audit community, various international organizations and Supreme Audit Institutions, and many other stakeholders. The support we receive from the federal and provincial Offices of the Auditors General in Canada – funding, donating expertise and time, and sharing ideas and information – is particularly crucial to our success and our collective contribution to the greater public good.

Our international capacity building work in developing countries and regions has been and is still made possible by funding from Global Affairs Canada as well as by support and contribution from many Canadian partners and stakeholders, including Canadian legislative audit offices. Our partners help us leverage Canadian expertise and know-how for the benefit of the global community.