Audit and evaluation

Assurance services

• Internal Audits: Provide reasonable assurance against defined criteria, following professional internal auditing standards. Scope is defined via a formal planning phase that includes a comprehensive risk assessment of the entity being audited.
• Targeted Control Audits: Provide reasonable assurance that key controls within an audit entity are designed and working as intended. These audits adhere to professional internal auditing standards. Relative to a typical internal audit, scope is defined using less intensive approaches and is much narrower than an internal audit.

Consulting services

• Reviews: Provide an objective assessment of a particular area without the same rigour of examination and/or testing of an audit. This can provide management with moderate assurance and sufficient information for decision-making purposes. Reviews may be requested by management or initiated by Internal Audit.
• Lessons Learned: Outline lessons from past experiences, on a given topic or topics. Data gathering typically limited to interviews and document review. This service may be requested by management or initiated by Internal Audit.  
• Risk Management Support: Includes a range of services to support enterprise risk management (ERM), such as championing ERM in the organization or supporting risk identification and assessment.
• Advice: Encompasses formal and informal advisory services, which may be planned or ad hoc. Advice may be requested by management or initiated by Internal Audit. Scope may include identification of control weaknesses and/or significant risks.
• Other Consulting Engagements: Formal engagements requested by management who plays a major role in defining objective and scope.

Program improvement services

• Standard Evaluations: These evaluations are used to conduct a comprehensive, neutral and formal assessment of a program, policy or an organization’s relevance and performance.
• Calibrated Evaluations: Calibrated evaluations are similar to standard evaluations in terms of credibility and objectivity; however, they may not include the depth and detail of a full evaluation. They may also have reduced methodologies and/or lighter reports. These evaluations can be conducted at any stage of program delivery.
• Developmental Evaluations: This type of evaluation involves early engagement, perhaps before an evaluation may normally be possible. The evaluator is embedded into the operations, questioning and researching in real time to inform implementation, delivery and decisions-making, as well as documenting innovations, tracking progress and facilitating needs for adjustment.

Consulting services

• Targeted Research: Offers management with insights on global trends or new practices. This service may involve specialized skills or services from externals. This type of research is discretionary and can supplement other services such as performance measurement.
• Performance Measurement: Supports creation of logic models, performance measures/indicators and frameworks as part of Performance Information Profiles to outline intended outcomes and the ways to achieve these. Led by the Head of Performance Measurement, evaluators are involved to ensure logic models, performance measures/indicators and targets are valid, reliable and useful for evaluation and decision making purposes.

Key Compliance Attributes are published in accordance with the Office of the Comptroller General of Canada (OCG) Technical Bulletin 2018-1: Policy on Internal Audit:

• A.2.2.3 Departments must meet public reporting requirements as prescribed by the Comptroller General of Canada and using Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat prescribed platforms, including:
  • A.2.2.3.1 Performance results for the internal audit function
  • A.2.2.3.2 A list of planned audit engagements for the coming fiscal year

These results, or key attributes, demonstrate that the main fundamental elements necessary for oversight are in place, are performing as required under the Policy on Internal Audit and the Directive on Internal Audit, and are achieving results.

Publications

• Privy Council Office Departmental Audit Committee Charter (May 2021)
• Mid-term evaluation of the Impact Canada Fellowship Program (November 12, 2020)
• Evaluation of the PCO Central Innovation Hub (October 7, 2020)
• Audit of Data Management (September 30, 2020)
• Internal Audit Charter (October 2019)
• Joint audit of the Access to Information and Privacy consultation process in Cabinet Confidences (January 28, 2019)
• Audit of the Parliamentary Returns Process (October 13, 2017)
• Self-Assessment of Staffing Activities (September 19, 2017)
• PCO Audit Committee Charter (July 2017)
• Review of PCO's Performance Management Framework for Employees (January 20, 2017)
• Audit of PCO’s Accounts Payable Function (January 16, 2017)
• Annual Audit Committee Report to the Clerk of the Privy Council 2016-2017
• Chief Audit Executive Annual Report 2016-2017
• Risk-Based Internal Audit Plan 2016-2017 to 2018-2019
• Risk Assessment of Personal Information Holdings (August 19, 2016)
• Audit of the Management and Use of Acquisition Cards (May 20, 2016)
• Charter for the PCO Audit Committee (2016)

Proactive disclosure

• Departmental Audit Committees