Backgrounder

Changes to Consulting and Audit Canada

Public Works and Government Services Canada is realigning the functions of Consulting and Audit Canada (CAC) in keeping with the government-wide commitment to improve how government works. Effective immediately, the consulting and audit functions of CAC will be separated. Consulting and international services will now be offered directly through PWGSC and the audit function will remain with the agency.

These changes reflect changing circumstances, including the government’s commitment to bolster the internal audit function government-wide, and the transformation of PWGSC business lines under The Way Forward. It is the department’s strategy to find innovative ways to deliver services smarter, faster and at a reduced cost, and to improve how the Government of Canada does business.

These changes will ensure the appropriate separation of CAC’s consulting and audit services, an approach that has been largely embraced by the private sector. The separation will eliminate any perceived conflict of interest arising from having both functions under one management regime.

Over the next few months, PWGSC will be working with the Office of the Comptroller General to look at how best to use CAC’s auditing capacity to strengthen the internal audit function government-wide. PWGSC will also review the consulting services it now manages from CAC to ensure these services continue to best serve the government’s needs.

In the interim, PWGSC and the agency will continue to provide consulting and auditing services on a cost-recovery basis to government departments and agencies and other governments. There will be no job losses as a result of the changes in reporting relationships.

CAC is a fully optional, fee for service, full cost-recovery special operating agency of PWGSC with over 420 employees in Ottawa and seven regional locations. In 2004-05, CAC worked on over 2,000 projects for close to 100 federal departments, foreign governments and international organizations.