I'm happy to be here to day to highlight the findings of our special examination of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation presented in chapter 6 of our 2012 spring report. I'm accompanied by Nicholas Swales, the principal who led the work.
Our audit covered the period from November 2010 to April 2011. We issued the report to the foundation's board in September 2011. This was the first special examination conducted on the foundation.
The examination focused on the Foundation's governance, investment management, strategic planning, risk management and operations. We are pleased to report that we found no significant deficiencies in the foundation's systems and practices during the period covered by the examination.
We made three recommendations in the report. Each recommendation addressed an area where the foundation had several good practices but others that could be improved.
The first area where we made a recommendation was governance. The foundations's board of directors had most of the elements necessary for effective governance. Roles and responsibilities were defined and the independence of the board safeguarded. The board also provided management with strategic direction and oversight. However, the board's competency profile did not identify the extent of investment management expertise needed to oversee the foundation's investment portfolio. We recommended that the competency profile be updated to include all skills needed, including financial and investment management expertise.
Investment management was also the subject of our second recommendation. The foundation adopted an investment policy in 2009 that included all the key elements necessary for managing the foundation's portfolio. This included a new set of performance measures. However, management and the board had not received information on how fund managers were meeting these new performance measures. We recommended that the foundation establish a process for obtaining better information on these measures.
Finally, the foundation had strategic and business planning processes that set clear direction and permitted monitoring by the board and management. It had identified its major risks and developed mitigating action plans. We recommended that the foundation periodically review the effectiveness of these risk mitigation plans.
We are pleased to note that the foundation agreed with all of our recommendations. We have not conducted any follow-up work, therefore I cannot comment on any measures the foundation has taken since we completed the special examination.
Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions that the committee members may have.
Thank you.