Biggest Scandal in Canadian History: Hrdc Audit Starts Probity War
summary
“Biggest Scandal in Canadian History”: HRDC Audit Starts Probity War
Abstract.
This article describes the nearly year-long political and media uproar that followed on the
Release in January, 2000 of a qualitative or soft “audit” of management control in the federal government department, Human Resources Development Canada, and analyses the contributing factors. The article argues that the auditors’ examination of project files for programs delivered by grants and contributions was so abstract and poorly executed that nothing whatever can be concluded from the work.
Introduction
The article takes up an audit event that dominated Canadian national politics for the first three quarters of the year 2000. The proximate cause or trigger was an internal auditors’ qualitative research report of its review of files – not a financial audit. On January 19, 2000, the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada released the audit, Final Report: Program Integrity/Grants and Contributions along with a press release. Despite its identity as a qualitative study the audit report unaccountably claims that one minor, non-random, facet of its research can “…provide an estimate of the magnitude of the [financial] loss” in programs using grants and contributions as their instrument. The press release claims that the audit “looked at programs representing approximately $1 billion of annual federal spending.” It then listed “areas requiring improvement.” Everything needed improvement. Management control of operations seemed hardly to exist. The series of events began by the audit’s release unfolded in Human Resources Development Canada and general government like the wreck of a bullion train in a valley of bandits. The media’s instant formulation was that the governing political party had colonized HRDC’s administrative processes, corrupting the bureaucracy’s handling of funds that represented at least one billion dollars, and possibly three billion.
“Biggest Scandal in Canadian History”: HRDC Audit Starts Probity War
Abstract.
This article describes the nearly year-long political and media uproar that followed on the
Release in January, 2000 of a qualitative or soft “audit” of management control in the federal government department, Human Resources Development Canada, and analyses the contributing factors. The article argues that the auditors’ examination of project files for programs delivered by grants and contributions was so abstract and poorly executed that nothing whatever can be concluded from the work.
Introduction
The article takes up an audit event that dominated Canadian national politics for the first three quarters of the year 2000. The proximate cause or trigger was an internal auditors’ qualitative research report of its review of files – not a financial audit. On January 19, 2000, the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada released the audit, Final Report: Program Integrity/Grants and Contributions along with a press release. Despite its identity as a qualitative study the audit report unaccountably claims that one minor, non-random, facet of its research can “…provide an estimate of the magnitude of the [financial] loss” in programs using grants and contributions as their instrument. The press release claims that the audit “looked at programs representing approximately $1 billion of annual federal spending.” It then listed “areas requiring improvement.” Everything needed improvement. Management control of operations seemed hardly to exist. The series of events began by the audit’s release unfolded in Human Resources Development Canada and general government like the wreck of a bullion train in a valley of bandits. The media’s instant formulation was that the governing political party had colonized HRDC’s administrative processes, corrupting the bureaucracy’s handling of funds that represented at least one billion dollars, and possibly three billion.
References: Google.com/audit case studies. The Canadianmonitor.com/hrdc audit scandal/pdf http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/dept/reports/audit.shtml. www.oagbvg.gc.ca. Government of Canada, HRDC, Backgrounder: Human Resources Development Canada Internal Audit Report on Grants and Contributions Initiative, January 19, 2000. http://www.hrdc.drhc.gc.ca/common/news/dept/ 000119.shtml. Government of Canada, HRDC, “Technical briefing regarding the release of an internal audit report on HRDC’s grants and contributions programs”, January 19, 2000.