Thank you.
On page 2 of the deck, Mr. Chairman, I provide an overview of my presentation. I'll be talking about the mandate of the work of the Office of the Auditor General, our audit products, our processes, our accountability, and how we measure the impact of the work of the office.
On page 3 we set out the legislative framework within which the office of the Auditor General works. Obviously, the key piece of legislation that governs our work is the Auditor General Act. It outlines our powers and responsibilities. It provides the mandate for the financial audit work that we do in government departments and agencies. It provides the mandate for the performance audits, the value-for-money audits, that the Office of the Auditor General does. It also sets out the role of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
Members may know that Mr. Scott Vaughan is Commissioner of the Environment. Mr. Vaughan's mandate is set out largely in the federal Auditor General Act. He operates within the Office of the Auditor General and conducts, on my behalf, all the environmental auditing work of the office.
Our mandate with respect to the audit work that we do in crown corporations is set out in the Financial Administration Act. The Auditor General of Canada is the auditor of record for all crown corporations, except for two. The Financial Administration Act also sets out the Auditor General's mandate for the performance audits known as “special examinations” that we do in crown corporations.
The Federal Sustainable Development Act requires the government to prepare a sustainable development strategy and submit it to the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development for comment. The commissioner comments on the government's draft sustainable development strategy and then he conducts audit work related to that strategy and to the individual departmental sustainable development strategies under that act. There are many other statutes that also govern the work of the office, but the key ones are those three: the Auditor General Act, for departments and agencies, including the Commissioner of the Environment; the Financial Administration Act for crown corporations; and the Federal Sustainable Development Act.
Slide 4 sets out how we fit into our system of parliamentary democracy. As members are well aware, Parliament authorizes government programs and government spending. The government provides an accounting back to Parliament of its results and spending, and the Office of the Auditor General provides a report to Parliament on how effectively government has managed these programs.
I should also point out, Mr. Chairman, that the Auditor General of Canada is also the legislative auditor of the three territorial governments in Canada: Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon. We largely play the same role that we play for the federal parliament with respect to those three territorial governments.
My presentation today will focus on the work that we do on behalf of the Parliament of Canada. I won't be speaking very much about the work that we do in the territories, but I'd be pleased to answer any questions that you might have in that respect.
Slide 5 talks about how we differ from government departments. This slide illustrates the legal provisions in the Auditor General Act and other legislation that ensure our independence. First and foremost, the Auditor General is appointed for a 10-year mandate. As a result of recent amendments to the Auditor General Act, that appointment now has to be confirmed by resolutions of both houses of Parliament. The Auditor General can only be removed on address of both the House of Commons and the Senate, so the Auditor General has a great deal of security in the tenure of the position.
I would point out, however, that the interim Auditor General is only a six-month appointment, which—not to make too fine a point of it, Mr. Chairman—comes to an end on November 30, 2011, some six weeks from now.