Conclusion

For the most part, WD has the risk management framework, governance and controls in place for delivery of programs and projects by third party arrangements. This report identified some areas of suggested improvement to strengthen the controls and reduce WD’s overall residual risk from third party delivery arrangements.

The audit examined several audit criteria used to assess the identified key risks, management control framework and practices. The following is the summary of results.

Results Summary by Audit Criteria

Assessed Audit Criteria	Results
Oversight and Performance Measurement	Criteria mostly met
Stewardship and Accountability	Criteria mostly met
Risk Management	Criteria mostly met
Training and Support	Criteria met

Audit Strategies and Approach

Planning

Audit planning started in May 2009 and fieldwork was completed in August 2009 in all four regions at WD. Pre-engagement meetings and preliminary survey were completed to facilitate identification of key risks, audit criteria, control elements and audit strategies. WD staff were involved as necessary throughout the audit process.

Standards and Methodology

Government of Canada internal auditing standards were used throughout the planning, conducting and reporting phases of the audit. The audit was evidence-based in order to ensure the audit assurance is fully supported. All available evidence has been examined and analyzed against the audit criteria in order to recap the results. Sources of evidence included: interviews, review and analysis of policies, background literature and management practices at WD, review of previous audits or reviews by other assurance providers, regional visits, analytical reviews, and elaboration on cause and effect of conditions, and follow-up on previous internal audits.

Many of the individual initiatives covered under third party arrangements have been audited in the past. This audit focused on WD’s general processes and controls around managing third party delivery arrangements and did not duplicate prior program-based audit work.

Sampling

The identified key risks were considered in selecting project files for examination. As part of the audit evidence, the auditors judgementally selected 22 representative project files from all regions for examination and tested the samples against the audit criteria.

Audit Team

WD internal audit staff conducted this audit.

Donald MacDonald    Chief Audit Executive           
Kathy Locke               Project Leader
Wilfredo Dimailig       Internal Auditor