F.13 Oversight of Contracted/Co-sourced Resources

  1. It is the policy of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s (Office) Practice Review and Internal Audit (PRIA) function to, when needed, supplement internal professional resources by contracting or co-sourcing with outside parties.

  2. The following are guidelines and principles to be followed in such cases.

  3. Outside resources may be used for

    1. planned audits,

    2. audits requiring specialized expertise not held by permanent staff, and

    3. emergency or unplanned projects requiring supplemental resources.

  4. Approval responsibility to contract outside resources lies with the Chief Audit Executive (CAE) to the extent the contract value is within the CAE approval limits and is covered by the annual budget. Items exceeding must be approved by the Auditor General.

  5. Regular Office contracting procedures, as set out by the contracting department, will be used for all outside resources, including confidentiality, ethics, and security clauses.

  6. Additionally, the contract will specify that all work done will be in accordance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. Before contracting or co-sourcing outside parties, the PRIA team has to ensure that the parties in question have the appropriate qualifications, competencies, and security clearance to carry out their work in the Office.

  7. All outside personnel will report to the CAE or designate.

  8. In the case of outside specialized expertise, a team approach using a full-time staff member will be used to ensure maximum knowledge transfer to staff in the course of the contract.

Last modified:
2018-03-22