The Auditor General of Québec provides a picture of internal audit within the Government of Québec - Press Release no. 8

QUÉBEC, May 25, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, Ms. Guylaine Leclerc, Auditor General, makes public the report entitled Value-for-Money Audit (spring 2016). In Chapter 8, she presents the observations araising from a study carried out among 35 entities.

Certain elements relating to the practices used are the same for almost all the surveyed entities. Among the strengths: adoption of a management framework for the internal audit function, systematic follow-ups on the implementation of recommendations, and obtaining an action plan following each audit. As for areas for improvement: there is no external quality assurance assessment and no determination of cost per audit. For the other elements, the results are rather variable.

The entities covered by the Act respecting the governance of state-owned enterprises have implemented most of the good practices relating to their audit committee and to the management of their internal audit activities.

The other agencies have integrated several of the desired elements, but their internal audit unit would benefit from deepening its knowledge of the risks, controls and main systems of its organization. In this context, it is difficult to have the assurance that the projects included in the audit plan are the most appropriate.

Although good practices have been noted, most of the departments requise several improvements to enable their audit committee and internal audit unit to fully play their role. Here are some examples of elements requiring improvement:

• The audit committee does not include a sufficient number of independent members and meets rarely.
• The internal audit unit has insufficient knowledge of the risks, controls and main systems relating to its organization.
• The resources devoted to internal audit are deemed insufficient by the person in charge.

The interventions of the Ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supérieur and of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux are limited in terms of internal audit within their network. These two important departments devote few resources to that function.

The full report is available only in French.

 

Source:

Lucie Roy, Director Cabinet, communications et affaires stratégiques Auditor General of Québec Tel.: [phone]

SOURCE Vérificateur Général du Québec

Lucie Roy, Director, Cabinet, communications et affaires stratégiques, Auditor General of Québec, Tel.: [phone]