Evidence of meeting #19 for Public Accounts in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
Okay, thank you.
I believe the Senate audit is going to be fitting into your department's plans. Maybe you can talk briefly about these plans. Are they going to be affecting any other audit activities?
3:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
The Senate audit is under way. We've been staffing it with mostly internal resources. We have had to get a few resources externally as well.
I believe to this point there has been one audit that we planned to do that we delayed because of the Senate audit. Other than that, we found most of the resources because of some changes of our plan on the financial audit side. It's not something you would notice particularly, because it wouldn't affect our performance audits.
But so far, in terms of performance audits that we would be planning on bringing forward to the Parliament of Canada, I believe we have delayed only one of those because of the Senate work.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
I have half a minute? Thank you.
How many auditors are normally assigned to a performance audit?
3:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
It certainly can range. What I would say is that a performance audit usually takes us about 8,000 hours. So if you said each person had.... It would be less than 2,000 hours, obviously, so it's probably around six. You could have a lot more actually working on it, but in terms of that time period, it's probably somewhere around six.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP David Christopherson
Sorry, your time has expired. Thank you.
Over to Mr. Woodworth, you have the floor, sir.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Sachs for attending today. It's always extremely interesting. I want to again commend you on the necessary and good-serving function you provide in allowing government to continuously update its processes.
I want to begin with some things that are probably obvious to all of us sitting at this table, but may not be so obvious to those who sit at home. That is with the raison d'être of your department, your agency. As I read it, there are a couple of important functions that your audits and studies provide. One of them is to provide objective information, advice, and assurance to Parliament, territorial legislatures, governments, and Canadians.
Do you consider that as the prime function of your agency?
3:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
I think that very much is our prime function.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Also, as I understand it, your office assists parliamentarians and territorial legislatures in their work regarding the authorization and oversight of government spending and operations. This too is a very important function and reason for your department.
Is that correct?
3:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
As we see our role, our role is to do the work, present the work to parliamentarians, and then parliamentarians can use it to hold government accountable.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
So the question I have for you is whether you are confident and comfortable that your agency will be able to adequately meet these important objectives with the 2014-15 budget that you've estimated for us.
3:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Yes, we'll be able to do that.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Will your department be able to continue producing audits that comply with professional standards and are delivered on time and on budget with the money that you've estimated for us for 2014-15?
3:50 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Certainly, complying with professional standards is paramount for us. All of our audits will comply with professional standards.
Being on time and on budget is always our goal. Some of the audits are not necessarily delivered on time or on budget, but that's our goal. But they will all comply with professional standards.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Am I correct that you plan with this budget to complete 95 financial audits, 27 performance audits, and four special examinations, and on top of all of that, continue with your audit of the Senate?
3:55 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
That is our plan, yes.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
As I understand it, all of this will be accomplished even after having reduced your staffing levels over the last year or two. You're still going to be able to accomplish these goals. Is that correct?
3:55 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Yes and part of the way that we were able to do that is due to a number of financial audits, particularly, that we were able to discontinue.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Are those the ones that you referred to in your remarks?
3:55 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Right.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
I also understand that all of these accomplishments that you are planning for the 2014-15 year are going to be achieved even after a 7.8% spending reduction, which has occurred over that last year or two and in fact you were able to bring in ahead of your target date. Is that correct?
3:55 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Yes, that's correct.
March 31st, 2014 / 3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
I commend you for demonstrating, in fact, that modest spending restraint can save millions of dollars without sacrificing program objectives and quality. We often hear a kind of post-apocalyptic version of the spending restraint that goes on in government as if it's going to devastate operations across the board, but I think your agency is proof positive that those two things can go hand in hand. I thank you for that.
I have one other area I want to delve into. I am frequently frustrated that Auditor General performance audits make recommendations without any mention of the cost to government departments of implementing those recommendations. I know that this is an interesting area of auditing practice.
How much more money would your department need in order to give Parliament the cost of the recommendations that you propose in your performance audits?
3:55 p.m.
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Certainly, I wouldn't be able to give you an estimate of that right now. One thing, though, that we try to do every time we make a recommendation with departments is to have that conversation about what can be done and what can be done reasonably.
We are always conscious of the fact that any of the recommendations that we make may cause work for the departments and may have a cost to actually implement. Of course, they are important recommendations that should be implemented. But how much it would cost us to put an estimate on the effort by the departments to implement those wouldn't be something I could give you right now.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP David Christopherson
I'm sorry, Mr. Woodworth, time has expired.
I did allow an extra minute of leeway there to hear the answer.
Monsieur Giguère, you have the floor.