Our webinars provide timely analysis and expert advice on issues that matter the most to public sector auditors.
Past Webinars:
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A Key Feature of Your Next Audit Plan: Auditing Culture in the Public Sector – Nov. 17, 2020 2-3pm EST
SPEAKER
Lisa Callas, MA, MBA, CIA, CCSA
Audit Coordinator
Office of the City Auditor, City of Edmonton
SPEAKER
Sharon Messerschmidt, MPA, CPA, CMA, CIA
Director General, Audit
Public Service Commission
SPEAKER
James Roth, PhD, CIA, CSSA, CRMA
President
AuditTrends, LLC
SPEAKER
Aïda Warah, PhD
Retired Director, Special Projects, Audit and Evaluation Branch
Environment and Climate Change CanadaUntil a few years ago, most auditors did not consider auditing organizational culture to be a part of their mandate. But, following a succession of recent corporate scandals, the audit community has come to consider the audit of organizational culture to be a new imperative and has started to develop tools and practices to help performance auditors examine this new focus area.
Our panelists will explore the emerging practice of auditing organizational culture and its relevance for today’s public sector auditors. They will attempt to answer questions such as: “What is organizational culture?”, “Why is auditing organizational culture important?”, and “How can organizational culture be audited?”
Video Archive Coming Soon
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Auditing Progress Toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – October 13, 2020 2-3pm EDT
How do you measure a government’s progress in implementing the 2030 Agenda and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in future audit work? The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in her 2018 spring report recognized that Federal leadership and cooperation with other levels of government and Canadians are needed to achieve the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of the sustainable development goals. The audit outlined the importance of a plan and a system to measure, monitor, and report on the progress in achieving the goals in order for Canada to fulfill its commitments to Canadians and the United Nations.
In this webinar, we examined the key steps and tools needed to assess governmental preparedness for sustainable development goals. We also discussed current audit guidance, methods, tools and audit practices that are used to assess progress toward the SDGs in Canada and in other countries.
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Using Artificial Intelligence in Times of Crisis – September 29, 2020 2-3pm EDT
With the thought of revenue losses, recession, and fiscal restraints on everyone’s minds, public sector organizations are redefining how they assess risk. By using the power of artificial intelligence and data analytics, we can improve our understanding of where risk occurs and use financial and performance data to identify critical trends. How can your audit organization use AI to navigate in these turbulent times? In this webinar, you will learn how to use data-driven approaches to help public servants and auditors perform complex analyses to generate rapid insights, and to focus on high risk areas to streamline efforts.
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Creating Opportunities for Today: Connecting Data, Workflows and Results – August 11, 2020
In the current times, the audit community is quickly evolving and transitioning to a new normal. Technology presents auditors with overwhelming possibilities; however, when used properly, they can bring significant opportunities and revolutionary insights to audits.
Join this session and see how you can create new opportunities for today. You will learn how to manage document requests remotely, sync your working paper files in real-time across engagement team members, and effectively mine data using artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide valuable insights and improve the overall quality of your audit engagements.
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Using Artificial Intelligence in Audits – June 9, 2020
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a critical tool for auditing, since it can analyze data and information that would have been far too costly to review in the past. AI’s ability to automate these processes makes it highly desirable for analyzing images, video, voice, text, and more. Join us for our AI webinar with expert Yves Genest.
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Auditing Organizational Culture – May 12, 2020
What is organizational culture? Unwritten rules, shared assumptions, norms, tone from the top, buzz from the bottom… all of the intangible things. No wonder the actual culture of an organization is often different from what is desired. Until a few years ago, most auditors did not consider auditing organizational culture to be a part of their mandate. But recent scandals have pointed to the need to look at key aspects of culture that can lead to problems. Join us for a presentation on how auditors can assess culture and make recommendations for improvement.
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Root Cause Analysis in Audits – April 14, 2020
Root cause analysis means not just reporting on findings, but on what caused them. Root cause analysis can help auditors write better audit recommendations and increase the impact of their audits. This webinar provides a taste of what we teach in our 2-day Root Cause Analysis course. Join us for a presentation of the main types of causes behind common audit findings, and techniques to uncover them. Discover the role cognitive bias can play when taking this approach.
Click here to access the presentation slides in PDF.
Click here to view written answers to a selection of questions we received from webinar participants.
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Oversight in the Public Sector – A Webinar on Auditing Board Oversight (French Only) – October 19, 2017
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Description
Two years ago, the Foundation published its Practice Guide to Auditing Oversight. We are now returning to the topic of oversight in a live discussion with three senior performance auditors who have vast experience in this field. Join us on this occasion and learn more about a topic that has been attracting more and more attention in recent years.
The webinar will focus on the oversight role of boards of directors in the public sector (school boards, agencies, authorities, crown corporations, etc.) and will be divided in four sections:
- What is oversight and what are the recent trends in this area?
- The context of board oversight in Ottawa, Québec and other Canadian provinces.
- Auditing board oversight in practice (interviews, minutes, surveys, etc.).
- Assurance levels, risks and professional judgement.
The webinar will conclude with a Question Period during which our panelists will answer questions from the audience.
Panelists
Régent Chouinard
Associates
Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation
An Audit Principal at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada from 2006 to 2015, Mr. Chouinard led performance audits and special examinations in various fields including Transportation, Arts, Culture and Major Capital Projects.
In addition, since 2006, Mr. Chouinard was the Office's specialist in governance of Crown corporations. He also held senior management positions for audit methodology, training and quality management during his 30-year career with the Office.
Mr. Chouinard is a Business graduate from the University of Ottawa and a Chartered Professional Accountant.
Serge Giguère
Assistant Auditor General
Office of the Auditor General of Quebec
Mr. Serge Giguère is a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec. He started working for the Quebec Auditor General in 1989 and he became an Assistant Auditor General there in 2014. He is currently responsible for leading two audit divisions specializing in performance audits and his portfolio includes many entities and sectors, notably health, education, transport. He regularly deals with public sector governance issues as part of the audits he oversees.
Yves Genest
Vice-President, Products and Services
Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation
Yves Genest is the Foundation’s Vice-President, Products and Services. Mr. Genest has 30 years of experience in the field of audit and program evaluation. Over his career, he has led a wide range of audits in more than 50 different organizations in the Federal Government. Until recently, he was Chief Audit and Evaluation Executive at Shared Services Canada. Prior to that, he was Director General of the Audit Directorate at the Public Service Commission of Canada and Principal at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Mr. Genest holds Masters degrees in both Public Administration and Political Science.
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Oversight in the Public Sector – A Webinar on Auditing Board Oversight (English Only) – June 14, 2017
This webinar archive is available to Members only. To access, please login below.
Description
The Foundation has published a Practice Guide to Auditing Oversight. This spring, we return to the topic of oversight with a live discussion with three senior performance auditors who have vast experience in this field. Join us for this occasion and learn more about a topic that has been attracting more and more attention in recent years.
The webinar will focus on board oversight in the public sector (school boards, agencies, authorities, crown corporations, etc.) and will be divided in three sections:
- What is oversight and what are the recent trends?
- What are some of the challenges in auditing oversight and what lessons were learned?
- What tools can be used to audit oversight?
The webinar will conclude with a Question Period during which our panelists will answer questions from the audience.
Panelists
Yves Genest
Vice-President, Products and Services
Canadian Audit & Accountability FoundationYves Genest is the Foundation’s new Vice-President, Products and Services. Mr. Genest has 30 years of experience in the field of audit and program evaluation. Over his career, he has led a wide range of audits in more than 50 different organizations in the Federal Government. Until recently, he was Chief Audit and Evaluation Executive at Shared Services Canada. Prior to that, he was Director General of the Audit Directorate at the Public Service Commission of Canada and Principal at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Mr. Genest holds Masters degrees in both Public Administration and Political Science.
Evangeline Colman-Sadd
Auditor General of the Halifax Regional Municipality
Evangeline Colman-Sadd was appointed Auditor General of Halifax Regional Municipality in 2016 for a seven-year term.
Prior to her appointment, Evangeline spent 22 years at the Office of the Auditor General of Nova Scotia in performance and financial audit. She held various roles in the Office, including, most recently, Assistant Auditor General for Performance Audit.
Evangeline is a Chartered Professional Accountant. She has been involved in work of the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors and has served as a member of the CICA PSAB Task Force on Assets, Contingent Assets, and Contractual Rights. She has also volunteered with various committees with CPA Nova Scotia (formerly ICANS).
Maria Capozzi
Principal, Strategic Initiatives & Board Governance
Office of the Auditor General of Manitoba
For the past 20 years, Maria Capozzi has worked for the Office of the Auditor General of Manitoba, where she is now Principal, Strategic Initiatives & Board Governance. Ms. Capozzi holds a Masters degree in Public Administration, is a Certified Government Auditing Professional, and has also completed the Institute of Corporate Directors’ Rotman Directors Education Program.
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Webinar on Auditing P3s (English only) – September 28, 2016
This webinar archive is available to Members only. To access, please login below.
Description
Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) have become a common way of delivering public infrastructures and services in many jurisdictions across Canada. However, only a small number of performance audits have so far focused their attention on P3 projects and the practice is still an emerging one.
Webinar Highlights
Join our expert panel, composed of two performance auditors and a leading academic expert, for a discussion of critical questions about auditing P3s: What are the key risks and challenges? What lessons have auditors learned? How can auditors add value?
Presenter
Pierre Fréchette, BA, MSc
The Canadian Audit and Accountability FoundationPierre Fréchette joined the CCAF in January 2013, on interchange from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG), where he has worked as a performance auditor for a decade.
At the OAG, Pierre was an environmental auditor with the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development for several years before becoming an Audit Project Leader working on various topics, including governance, national defense and audit methodology. He has also contributed to several special examinations of federal Crown Corporations.
Pierre holds a Bachelor of Biology degree from Université Laval (1999) and a Masters of Environmental Studies from Université de Sherbrooke (2002). As part of his graduate studies, he also attended Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, under a foreign interchange study program.
As the CCAF's Research Officer, Pierre contributes to research projects and to the development of new performance audit methodology and training products.
Panelists
Christopher Thomas, BA, CPA, CA
Office of the Auditor General of British ColumbiaChris is a Senior Manager in the financial audit portfolio at the Office of the Auditor General of BC. He has been involved with Public-Private-Partnership financial audit and reporting; as well as, P3 assurance projects since 2005.
He has been involved with three performance engagements on specific P3 projects and lead a fourth. Chris recently chaired the Infrastructure Study Group of the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors (formerly the P3 Discussion Group). In 2015 he worked for OAG Canada as a subject matter expert in a Special Examination they did involving P3's.
Matti Siemiatycki, BA, MSc, PhD
University of TorontoMatti is an assistant professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on infrastructure planning, delivery, and financing.
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