The Auditor General’s Office is responsible for:
- conducting audits on behalf of City Council in the areas of finance (excluding attest), operations, compliance and performance, and conducting other audits as appropriate
- undertaking forensic investigations, including investigations of suspected fraudulent activities
- overseeing the work of external auditors performing financial statement or attest audits
- carrying out special assignments identified by the Auditor General or approved by a 2/3 majority resolution of Council
- providing assurance that the City’s information technology infrastructure contains adequate controls and security, as well as cybersecurity reviews
- operating the Fraud and Waste Hotline
- referring issues to divisional management and the Internal Audit Division as appropriate
An extremely important component of any audit process is the follow-up of audit recommendations made. There is little benefit to an audit unless recommendations resulting from the audit are implemented.
Read about the formal process to follow-up on all previously issued audit reports
Annual Work Plan
The Auditor General’s Office publishes a yearly Work Plan which identifies and ranks projects to be completed based on a number of risk factors. The Auditor General’s Work Plan is reported to Council through the Audit Committee. Council may not delete any project from the Work Plan and may only add to the Work Plan with a 2/3 majority resolution of Council or through a motion for the Auditor General to consider adding a project to her Work Plan.
Audit Process
The audit process is an independent, objective assurance activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations. The audit process assists an organization to accomplish its objectives more effectively, efficiently, and economically.
Quality Assurance
The Auditor General’s Office is committed to achieving a high level of audit quality. Our quality assurance framework provides a reasonable assurance that the audits done by the Office meet Government Auditing Standards.