New Methodology – Gender Equality & Auditing Resource Extraction
Our series of Practice Guides, the first two of which addressed the topics Auditing Efficiency and Auditing Oversight, continue to receive highly positive feedback from our members and stakeholders.
Look out for our next Practice Guide to Auditing Gender Equality, scheduled for release in December 2015. The purpose of the Guide is to provide public sector auditors with information and guidance on how to conduct performance audits on gender equality policies and programs and on gender equality issues within broader audit topics. It will address the question of 'why' a performance audit on gender equality is important and will present different approaches to examining gender equality through a performance audit. This guide is being developed through our international program, which is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD). It will also be integrated into our training for the participating international Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and we are already teaching it to current Fellowship participants in Canada.
We also recently held the first meeting of the advisory group that will be helping to develop a new Guide, tentatively titled – Practice Guide to Auditing Natural Resource Extraction: Revenues and Financial Assurances. The advisory group, which brings together auditors and subject matter experts from across Canada, plays a key role in the guide development process. The first meeting was held on September 9-10 at CCAF offices. At the meeting, participants discussed the concepts and issues involved, and agreed on the scope of the guidance to be included in the guide. We intend to reach out to members of the INTOSAI Working Group on Extractive Industries to ensure that global perspectives are integrated into the Guide. The Practice Guide is planned for release in March 2016.
Audit Report Writing – Refreshed Course In the Works
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John Reed (V-P, Performance Audit) working with participants at the Report Writing renewal workshop |
CCAF has delivered training courses to public sector auditors for over 35 years, providing them with the training they need, when they need it. CCAF’s education and learning focus means that our courses are continually being assessed to ensure that they offer the latest knowledge, guidance and techniques to support performance auditors in their work.
We recently initiated a renewal of our Report Writing course and convened experts, including senior auditors from a number of legislative audit offices, to participate in a workshop on September 23-24 to provide input and guidance. The objectives of the workshop were: (1) to agree on the skills, knowledge and techniques that auditors need in order to effectively communicate audit findings and to write clear and compelling audit reports, and (2) to develop a road map for the course design, key topics, exercises and teaching methods to effectively deliver the course. The course will integrate principles of effective writing and communications, and its first pilot delivery is planned for early 2016.
Scholarship Award Recipients Visit the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) Canada
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Pictured left to right: Nicole Wieczorek (V-P Operations, CCAF); |
The first two recipients of the Ronald C. Thompson Memorial Scholarship Award, Joel Crawford and Brianna Paterson-Sonnenburg, recently had the opportunity to meet with Michael Ferguson, the Auditor General of Canada, and Julie Gelfand, the Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development, at OAG Canada offices.
The meeting, which took place on September 25, was an excellent occasion for the Carleton University students, who are both in their final year of the Bachelor of Commerce program, to discuss the work of the OAG and learn about the value of a career in auditing in the public sector.
Learn more about the Ronald C. Thompson Memorial Scholarship Award.
CCAF Delivers Performance Audit Training Across the Country
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Fundamentals of Performance Audit course |
We have launched into our Fall/Winter schedule of performance audit courses. September/October saw us deliver four offerings of our Fundamentals of Performance Auditing course to the OAGs of Québec, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Alberta, as well as an offering held in Montréal for auditors working in municipalities across Québec. We also delivered the Advanced Performance Auditing Techniques workshop to OAG Alberta, as well as an offering to Québec municipal auditors.
A number of additional offerings of the Fundamentals course will be delivered in the coming months throughout Canada, as well as three offerings of our Evidence Collection and Analysis training workshop.
You can access descriptions, participant profiles, and sample agendas for all our performance audit courses on our website.
Supporting Public Accounts Committees
We continue to deliver workshops, guidance and tools to support the strengthening of public accounts committees (PACs) in Canada. We recently renewed our orientation session for PACs, which we delivered to the PAC in Alberta in late September and followed up with a workshop to them on An Effective PAC and the Art of Questioning. We also delivered an orientation workshop in Prince Edward Island in late October.
On October 6, we launched an online version of the Attributes of an Effective Public Accounts Committee, which has been updated based on a recent survey we conducted on PACs in Canada.
We have begun an outreach process to members of the Canadian legislative audit and PAC communities to identify new topic areas and tools to support the strengthening of PACs in the coming year.
Another Successful Mission to Vietnam
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Graduate Fellows participated in advanced |
In September, CCAF and Hoa Quach of the OAG Alberta traveled to Vietnam to continue working with the SAI’s newly established Performance Audit Division. Following the launch of the Division in January 2014 and the completion of its first two performance audits in March 2015, this mission focused on providing more advanced training. CCAF delivered three one-day courses on risk-based audit planning, quality control and assurance, and high-value audit reporting. Like they did with the CCAF Fundamentals of Performance Auditing course, a team at the SAI will be working on translating and adapting these courses for internal training.
As well, we took this opportunity to review our partnership work plan with the SAI’s leadership, given that we are midway through our five-year DFATD-funded program. Now that a performance audit practice has been launched within the SAI’s central office, we are exploring how CCAF can support its expansion to the SAI’s 13 regional offices. CCAF’s ongoing support to the development of Vietnamese versions of training courses and mentoring on the development of the SAI’s performance audit standards, manuals and processes will contribute to meeting this goal.
Partner Audit Institutions Study the INTOSAI Performance Measurement Framework
CCAF is helping the four partner audit institutions that participate in our international program to learn about the performance measurement framework (PMF) designed by INTOSAI and how they could implement it in their offices. The PMF provides SAIs with a framework for voluntary assessments of their performance against the International Standards for Supreme Audit Institutions and other established good practices.
In Vietnam, seven auditors have participated in international training on the PMF with CCAF’s support since 2013 and we have been working with this team to develop a plan for implementing the PFM. The SAI is now finalizing this plan and we expect the assessment will be concluded in 2016.
The SAIs of Cameroon, Ghana and Tanzania have also participated in this international training with CCAF support. This November, CCAF will be sponsoring the participation of Ghana and Tanzania in another round of training, being held in South Africa. Each of these SAIs is sending two new participants as well as one senior representative who previously attended the training and will now co-facilitate this course. This allows the SAIs to build upon their knowledge of the PMF and contribute to the capacity development of other SAIs in their region.
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