Acknowledgements

The Canadian Audit & Accountability Foundation’s mission is to foster confidence in the public sector by promoting effective performance audit and oversight of government operations. To support this, we provide education, research and capacity development for public sector auditors and oversight committees, in Canada and abroad, helping them to work with other public officials for accountable government.

The Practice Guide to Auditing Efficiency is part of the our performance audit capacity-building program and is the first in a planned series of such guides. It has been made possible with funding provided by the Foundation's members.

The consultative process undertaken for the Practice Guide project was extensive and included consultations with many leaders and professionals, both on an individual basis as well as a collective, through networks such as the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors (CCOLA) and the Government Internal Auditors Council of Canada (GIACC).

On behalf of the our Board of Governors, we would like to acknowledge the support, thought leadership, and active contributions of the members of the core project team who guided the design and development of this Practice Guide¹:

Carmen Abela, Senior Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, IIA Canada

Mark Anderson, Executive Director, Strategic Issues, Office of the Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan

Brian Bost, Partner, Risk Consulting, KPMG LLP

Yves Denis, Strategic Issues and VFM (Value for Money) Advisory Services Branch, Auditor General of Québec

Richard Flageole, CCAF-FCVI Associate

Malcolm Gaston, Assistant Auditor General, Performance Audit, Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia

Shivani Harrypersad, Project Lead (A), Audit Centre for Excellence, Ontario Internal Audit Division, Ontario Ministry of Finance

Lenka Jendrusiak, Senior Manager (A), Audit Centre for Excellence, Ontario Internal Audit Division, Ontario Ministry of Finance

Paul Lohnes, President and CEO, CCAF-FCVI

Wendy Loschiuk, Assistant Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Neil Maxwell, Assistant Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Lloyd Mills, Director, Internal Audit, BMO Group

Larry Munroe, Auditor General, Halifax Regional Municipality

Paul Nyquist, Director, Performance Audit, Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia

Dale Shier, Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Gigi Yip, Audit Manager, Office of the Auditor General of Ontario

We also wish to thank the many other audit professionals who supported this project and provided comments and suggestions, including:

Sharon Clark, Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Maureen Debaji, Systems Audit Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Alberta

Marisa Fernandez, Executive Lead and Strategic Advisor, Audit Centre for Excellence, Ontario Ministry of Finance

Tim Flaherty, Senior Director, Office of the Comptroller General, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Jennifer Fung, Audit Supervisor, Office of the Auditor General of Ontario

Eric Hopper, Director, Performance Audit, Office of the Auditor General of New Brunswick

Jacques Lamothe, Audit Manager at Statistics Canada and member of the IIA Canada Emerging Issues Committee;

Éric Lavoie, Associate, Risk Management and Performance, Lemieux Nolet, and Chairman of the IIA Canada Emerging Issues Committee

Jane MacAdam, Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General of Prince Edward Island

Lucie Roy, Director, Strategic Affairs and VFM (Value for Money) Advisory Services Branch, Auditor General of Québec

Terry Spicer, Assistant Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General of Nova Scotia

This project and the final Practice Guide would not have been possible without:

the leadership provided by John Reed, CCAF’s Vice-President for Performance Audit and Chair of the core Practice Guide project team;
the contribution of CCAF Associate Elaine Morash, Lead Author and Researcher for this project; and
the support of CCAF staff members Pierre Fréchette, Research Officer, Julien Raynaud, Project Officer, and Lynne Casiple, Computer Specialist and Webmistress.

Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to the individuals who contributed their skills to the process of producing all the material for the Practice Guide website: Nicole Plamondon (translation), Laurel Hyatt (editing), Paul Edwards (graphic design), and Jennifer Priest and the Envision team (Web design).

With the current and continued emphasis of governments, in Canada and abroad, to find efficiencies in government operations, we hope this Practice Guide will be a useful and practical reference tool for audit and evaluation professionals as they address the important element of efficiency in the audits they conduct.

Brian Bost