Discussion Papers

This discussion paper, Profile of Government Internal Audit Functions in Canada in 2023–2024, offers a national overview of internal audit practices across government levels, based on benchmarking surveys by the Government Internal Auditors Council of Canada (GIACC). The report highlights the growing focus on cybersecurity, data analytics, and advisory services, with most organizations maintaining stable budgets and adopting innovative approaches like remote auditing. Benchmarking is emphasized as a key tool for improving performance, and the findings show Canadian internal audit functions are well-aligned with North American best practices, supporting continuous improvement and value creation in the public sector.

This discussion paper, Better Integrating Root Cause Analysis into Public Sector Performance Auditing, provides tailored, simple tools and methodology to help auditors and audit offices that wish to undertake root cause analysis. It addresses when and how root cause analysis can be carried out.

This discussion paper, The Impact of Performance Audits: Defining, Measuring and Reporting Impact, describes how audit institutions in Canada and abroad measure and report the impact of their performance audits. It also highlights good practices that audit institutions have adopted to increase their impact.

This discussion paper, Approaches to Audit Selection and Multi-Year Planning, is designed to assist audit offices in understanding the options available to them. The paper also assists offices in deciding the approach to topic selection and multi-year planning that best suits their needs and circumstances.

This discussion paper, Auditing Public-Private Partnerships, provides an overview of public-private partnerships in Canada and presents the perspectives of auditors who have conducted performance audits of P3s in recent years.

This discussion paper, How to Increase the Impact of Environmental Performance Audits, developed in collaboration with the Offices of the Auditors' General of Canada and Québec, contains a number of ideas on how to increase the impact of environmental performance audits, from the planning through reporting phases of the performance audit process.