Public Services and Procurement Canada
Report on the key compliance attributes of Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Internal Audit Function

April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023
Office of the Chief Audit, Evaluation, and Risk Executive

Introduction

The Policy on Internal Audit (hereon referred to as the Policy) and its associated Directive on Internal Audit (Directive) came into effect on April 1, 2017. The objective of the Policy is to ensure that the oversight of public resources throughout the federal public administration is informed by a professional and objective internal audit function that is independent of departmental management.

The Policy sets out the responsibilities for Deputy Heads of large and small departments related to internal audit, which contributes to sound risk management, control and governance processes; as well as the role and responsibilities of the Comptroller General of Canada as the head of the function government-wide.

Deputy Heads are responsible for ensuring that internal audit in the department is carried out in accordance with the Institute of Internal Auditors International Professional Practices Framework (Standards) unless the framework is in conflict with the Treasury Board Policy or its related directive; if there is a conflict, the Policy or Directive will prevail.

The Directive outlines specific requirements of the Chief Audit Executive (CAE) and the associated mandatory procedures for internal auditing in the Government of Canada in subsection A.2.2.3. These procedures include public reporting requirements as prescribed by the Comptroller General of Canada, including performance results for the internal audit function and a list of planned audit engagements for the coming fiscal year. It is important that the public is aware that heads of government organizations are receiving assurance that activities are managed in a way that demonstrates responsible stewardship.

In order to comply with the requirement to publicly report on the performance of the internal audit function, the Comptroller General issued a technical bulletin on publishing key compliance attrributes that outlined, among other things, key compliance attributes. These attributes were selected in order to provide pertinent information regarding the professionalism, performance and impact of the internal audit function within the department. The key attributes of compliance with the Policy and Standards are:

It should be noted that these are not performance measures, and no targets are attached. Under the Policy, the Comptroller General has the authority to amend these attributes, should there be changes in the internal audit environment and/or due to the evolving maturity of the internal audit function.

Key compliance attributes of Internal Audit

In accordance with the Policy and the technical bulletin issued by the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG), Public Services and Procurement Canada’s (PSPC) Office of the Chief Audit, Evaluation and Risk Executive (OCAERE) presents the following key compliance attributes for the internal audit function for the reporting period April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. The compliance attributes noted below pertain to staff professional certifications and designations, the quality assurance and improvement program, and execution of the audit plan.

1. Professional certifications and designations

Professionalism of the internal audit function is referenced several times in the applicable policy instruments. In accordance with the Policy, the OCG is responsible for determining the professional requirements for internal audit in the federal public administration. The OCG relies on the certification and training for the profession provided by the Institute of Internal Auditors. Within departments with internal audit functions, the CAE is responsible for ensuring that internal auditors have the appropriate qualifications, skills, and opportunities to maintain and develop their internal auditing competencies, and the Deputy Head is responsible for supporting this professional development and certification. The professional certifications and designations for staff employed in PSPC’s OCAERE are as follows:

Table 1: Key compliance attributes for fiscal year 2022 to 2023
Key compliance attribute Attributes

1(a) Number of internal audit employeestable 1 note 1

  • assurance and consulting Services: 15 employees
  • Quality Assurance and Practice Improvement (QAPI): 3 employees
  • Departmental Audit Committee (DAC) Secretariat: 1 employee
 19
1(b) Percent of staff with an internal audit or accounting designation (Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA)) 58%
1(c) Percent of staff with an internal audit or accounting designation (CIA, CPA) in progress 16%
1(d) Percent of staff holding other designations (Certified Government Auditing Profession (CGAP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certification in Risk Management Assurance (CRMA)) 5%

2. Quality assurance and improvement program

In accordance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, the Chief Audit Executive must develop and maintain a quality assurance and improvement program (QAIP) that covers all aspects of the internal audit activity (standard 1300) and must include both internal and external assessments (standard 1310). The status of the OCAERE’s QAIP is as follows:

Table 2: Key compliance attributes with corresponding responses
Key compliance attribute Response
2(a) Date of last comprehensive briefing to the DAC on the internal processes, tools, and information considered necessary to evaluate conformance with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Code of Ethics and the Standards and the results of the Quality Assurance and Improvement Program (QAIP).

In 2022-to-2023, the Quality Assurance and Practice Improvement function of the OCAERE conducted an internal self-assessment of internal audit policies and procedures to ensure conformance with IIA standards. The assessment found the following areas of improvement:

  • leveraging the functionality in TeamMate+ to strengthen the appropriate resource planning and capacity of the internal audit function and achieve the approved Risk-Based Audit Plan (RBAP)
  • finalizing and implementing a training and development plan for internal audit
  • strengthening the Internal Audit Manual’s policies, procedures, methodology and tools for TeamMate+
  • finalizing and reporting on key performance indicators toward established objectives
  • strengthening the process to collect, track and record feedback to ensure the effectiveness of the internal audit function is continuously monitored
  • strengthening data analytics approach
  • strengthening written audit reporting such as to comply with Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat accessibility guidelines

The results of the QAIP periodic self-assessment were presented to the Departmental Audit Committee on May 16 to 17, 2023.
2(b) Date of last external assessment. The OCAERE’s last external assessment was tabled at the January 28, 2020 Departmental Audit Committee meeting.

3. Internal Audit Plan and related information

In order to demonstrate that management is acting on recommendations made by internal audit to improve departmental practices, public reporting requirements, as prescribed by the Comptroller General of Canada, requires internal audit functions to publish a list of completed engagements including the date by which all management actions were to have been implemented and the status of that implementation. This information is to be updated regularly and remain on the list of engagements for 6 months after the management action plan has been fully implemented. Internal audit functions also list all engagements scheduled for the coming fiscal year and their status in the spirit of demonstrating open and transparent information on the government’s intentions to conduct engagements in areas of higher risk to departments and to demonstrate responsible stewardship to Canadians.

Table 3: Engagement information
Engagement title Engagement status Report approved date Report published date Original planned Management Action Plan (MAP) completion datetable 3 note 1 Implementation statustable 3 note 2
Office of the Comptroller General Horizontal Audit of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Published – MAP not fully implemented October 30, 2017 August 2018 March 2019 81%
***table 3 note 3 Approved – Not published October 30, 2018 Not applicable (N/A) March 2019 100%
Review of Staffing Published – MAP not fully implemented June 11, 2019 October 16, 2020 September 2020 50%
Audit of Information Technology (IT) Security Published – MAP not fully implemented January 28, 2020 October 16, 2020 March 2021 32%
Audit of Staffingtable 3 note 4 Published – MAP not fully implemented February 4, 2020 October 16, 2020 September 2021 86%
Audit of the Management of Engineering Assets Published – MAP not fully implemented June 1, 2020 October 16, 2020 September 2020 89%
Targeted Review of the Phased Bid Compliance Process Published – MAP not fully implemented October 8, 2020 March 22, 2021 September 2020 80%
Health Check of Performance Measurement of Electronic Procurement Solution (EPS) Project Approved – Not published November 10, 2020 N/A April 2021 100%
BDO Independent Third Party Review (ITPR) of PSPC EPS Project Review: Frozen Allotment Gate #1 Approved – Not published November 10, 2020 N/A July 2023 100%
BDO ITPR of PSPC EPS Project Review: Frozen Allotment Gate #2 Approved – Not published March 9, 2021 N/A September 2021 60%
Health Check of Energy Services Acquisition Program Approved – Not published February 2, 2021 N/A September 2021 69%
Health Check of the EPS: Project Management Framework Approved – Not published October 26, 2020 N/A November 2020 100%
Industrial Security Systems Transformation (ISST) Approved – Not published December 16 2020 N/A March 2022 71%
Follow-up to the Audit of IT Security Published – MAP not fully implemented December 20, 2021 May 2022 March 2025 9%
Audit of the Charging model Published – MAP not fully implemented December 20, 2021 May 2022 November 2022 67%
Health Check on change management for the EPS: Phase I Approved – Not published April 25, 2022 N/A N/A N/A
Laboratories Canada: Joint Advisory on Governance: Emerging Issues and Risks Approved – Not published June 30, 2022 N/A October 2023 0%
Accrual Budgeting Published – MAP not fully implemented November 22, 2022 April 2023 June 2023 0%
Audit of PSPC’s Vaccination Process: Phase I Published – MAP not applicable October 17, 2022 April 2023 N/A N/A
Audit of PSPC’s Vaccination Process: Phase II Approved – Not published April 4, 2023 To be determined (TBD) N/A N/A
Health Check on change management for the EPS: Phase II Approved – Not published April 17, 2023 N/A June 30, 2023 0%
EPS ITPR Gate #3 frozen allotment (Milestone 6 to 8) Approved – Not published February 21, 2023 N/A TBD TBD
Audit of Federal Government Consulting Contracts Awarded to McKinsey & Company Published – MAP not fully implemented March 26, 2023 March 30, 2023 January 31, 2025 0%
Health Check of procurement authorities In Progress TBD TBD TBD TBD

4. Usefulness

In order to determine if the internal audit function is credible and adding value in support of the mandate and strategic objectives of the organization, internal audit functions are required to conduct post-audit surveys with senior management of the areas that have been audited.

Table 4: Key compliance attribute and response
Key compliance attribute Response
4. Average overall usefulness rating from respondents of areas audited. 100% of respondents rated the overall usefulness of audits as "Agree" to "Strongly Agree".
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