Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Safeguards to protect the confidentiality of Auditor General Reports prior to tabling in Parliament

15 May 2006

Sheila Fraser, FCA
Auditor General of Canada

Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to discuss a newspaper article that claims to contain information from a report scheduled to be tabled in the House of Commons tomorrow. With me today is Assistant Auditor General Jean Ste-Marie.

I would like to begin by saying that I take my relationship with Parliament very seriously, and that my Office takes every reasonable step to ensure that our reports are not disclosed publicly until tabled in the House of Commons. Premature disclosure represents a disregard for the statutory right of the House of Commons to receive that report.

This is not the first time one of our reports has been leaked to the media, but overall it is not a common occurrence. Since 2001, eight audit reports, including the one we are discussing today, have been the subject of leaks by journalists before they were tabled in the House of Commons. They represent a very small proportion of the 128 reports I have tabled during this period. Nonetheless, I consider eight leaks too many.

When the 2006 Status Report is tabled tomorrow, you will notice that the information published in some newspapers on May 11 is not entirely accurate in some important respects. It is likely that the journalist who wrote the article did not possess a printed copy of the report, but was passing on information he received verbally.

Now I would like to outline some of the safeguards we have in place to protect the confidentiality of our reports at three critical stages in the process: when we consult the organization being audited in order to validate the facts as we are finalizing our report; when we brief government officials and Ministers; and when the report is at the printer.

With regard to security of the report when it is being printed, we ensure that the personnel employed by the printer handling our reports have all the appropriate security clearances and enforce a rigorous control of printed copies of our reports.

Our own policies as well as our professional standards require us to consult the departments and agencies we audit about the contents of our reports. We consult them more or less continuously over the course of the audit. The purpose of this consultation is to produce a report to Parliament that is based on accurate and complete information.

Draft audit reports represent one of our greatest security risks as they summarize our findings. We have put in place a number of safeguards to protect our draft reports from public disclosure during the stage when we are consulting the department or agency in order to validate the facts in our reports.

Our Office's Code of Professional Conduct requires that all staff be familiar with and observe the security requirements set out in the Security Policy and Guidelines issued by the Office. Under this policy, audit Principals are responsible for ensuring safe storage of draft reports and restricting access to them.

Draft reports shared with departments and agencies for the purpose of validating facts and discussing our observations and recommendations are considered "designated information" and are labeled "Protected A".

When we provide draft reports to the organization we audit, we send a letter outlining the following safeguards:

• That this document be treated with appropriate discretion until it is tabled in the House of Commons;
• That it should not be copied;
• That all copies provided should be returned to the Office or destroyed. If they choose the latter option, they must provide my Office with a certificate to that effect.

Each draft report we provide to the departments and agencies we audit is marked on each page "Not to be copied, Draft document for the purposes of fact verification and comment only, Property of the Auditor General, Protected A". And every copy sent to the entity is numbered to facilitate its tracking and retrieval.

In the last few weeks before tabling, we meet with senior officials of Treasury Board Secretariat and Privy Council Office. The purpose of these meetings is to assist these central agencies in their coordination of government-wide oversight. In the last few days before tabling, we also offer briefings to ministers responsible for the departments and agencies we audit as a courtesy, since they will be responding publicly to our reports. In the case of all briefings, we rely on the discretion of those involved.

As you can see, my Office takes steps to protect the confidentiality of our reports before they are tabled. In our opinion, there has been no breach of a law that would require us to report the incident to the RCMP. Rather, there has been a breach of the Government Security Policy.

That concludes my opening statement, Mr. Chairman, and I would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have.