Dollars Can Speak Louder Than Words: Reporting on The Financial Impact of Performance Audits
The Toronto Auditor General’s Office issues an annual report that explains both the financial and non-financial benefits of its work. Although many, if not all, audit offices report on the non-financial benefits arising from recommendations in their performance audits, the focus of this article is on communicating financial impacts. Ina Chan and Niroshani Movchovitch explain how their office quantifies savings in the annual report to demonstrate the value of their work in dollar terms.
While it may seem like a daunting task to report the financial and non-financial impacts of performance audits, the authors argue that many audit offices already have processes in place to gather the kind of information needed to prepare such reports.
Dare to Be Different: Tips for Conducting Agile Audits
When it was created in 2011 to modernize the delivery of information technology infrastructure across the federal government, Shared Services Canada was tasked with leading five major programs. The department’s internal audit division was responsible for providing assurance services for these large, complex, and rapidly evolving programs.
It soon became clear that a traditional audit process would not allow the internal audit team to look at the key risks of these programs in a timely and value-added manner. A more agile approach to auditing was needed. In this article, Chantal Hewston explains how the internal audit team rose to the challenge and transformed its audit process to meet the demands of its environment.
Finding Where the Pipeline Leaks: Tips for Auditing Results and Identifying Root Causes
Since their origin 40 years ago, public sector performance audits were designed to examine the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of government activities. However, over the years, the practice of performance auditing has tended to focus on systems and practices and relatively little attention has been paid to whether government programs achieve their intended results.
In this article, Neil Maxwell presents an approach, based on a simple analogy, that can help public sector auditors to plan and conduct results-focused audits and report their findings effectively. This approach can also help auditors to identify the root causes of observed deficiencies.
