Procurement and Contracting Audit Report

Table of contents

• Executive Summary
• Background
• Audit Objectives, Scope and Criteria
• Audit Approach and Methodology
• Statement of Assurance
• Observations, Conclusions and Recommendations
• Appendix A: Audit Criteria

Executive Summary

The Commissioner is supported by the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying (OCL) of Canada, an Agent of Parliament which was established in 2008. The Commissioner reports annually to Parliament on the administration of the Act and the Code, and is required to table reports about any investigation conducted in relation to the Code.

OCL's Multi-Year Risk-Based Audit Plan was planning for an audit of procurement and contacting activities. 

The audit objectives are:

1. To determine whether management practices, systems and controls result in goods and services being acquired in accordance with stated requirements;
2. To verify appropriate delegated financial signing authorities were applied;
3. To validate adherence to policies and guidelines; and
4. To confirm that value for money was obtained.

The audit also determined whether management practices, systems and controls meet requirements of the Financial Administration Act, the proactive disclosure of contracts, and the Federal Framework for Aboriginal Economic Development.

The audit covered procurement and contracting activities for the period under review, from April, 2022 to March, 2024.

The audit results are summarized below with respect to Governance, Risk Management and Internal Controls and include three recommendations:

1. We have noted limited procurement reporting to management (volumes, types, trends analysis) during our audit period. It is expected that this will be remediated in the coming months/years. Management should ensure that reporting is obtained, in alignment with the SLA.
2. We also suggest that the current procurement guide of OCL be updated and distributed to its staff to help guide future procurements.
3. OCL should ensure that any procurement is done within its delegation instrument. The delegation instrument should be communicated to its employees and PBC to ensure that such mistakes are avoided in the future.

Background

The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying (OCL) was created in 2008 with the objective of ensuring transparent and ethical lobbying of the Government by administering the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct. The OCL is an independent Agent of Parliament responsible for lobbying at the federal level with the following Mandate, Vision and Values:

Mandate – Foster awareness of and compliance with the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct and maintain a Lobbyists Registration System (LRS) in order to increase transparency of federal lobbying activities.

Vision – Canadians have access to information regarding federal lobbying activities and are aware that lobbying should be conducted in accordance with the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct, which contributes to Canadians’ confidence in our federal democratic institutions.

Values – As federal public servants, OCL personnel abide by the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector, and its values of Respect for Democracy, Respect for people, Integrity, Stewardship and Excellence. In addition, given the nature of our work, the following values are especially important to the OCL:

1. Independence
2. Transparency
3. Impartiality
4. Fairness

The OCL has identified key departmental results that lobbyists and public office holders understand the requirements of the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct; and lobbyists register and report their lobbying activities in compliance with the Lobbying Act.

In accordance with Treasury Board policy, the OCL has put in place a Delegation Instrument that includes delegations for financial and contracting transactions related to procurement of goods and services. The Instrument:

5. Is signed by the current Responsible Minister (President of Treasury Board)
6. Contains appropriate delegations to positions within OCL and where appropriate to positions in government organizations that provide services to OCL.

The OCL is a small organization and does not have its own dedicated procurement staff. For the past several years, procurement was carried out by a PG-05 casual employee at OCL and by staff at the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). In the Fall of 2023, the Parole Board of Canada became the OCL’s service provider for procurement.

The OCL has hired Aniko/Samson to undertake an Audit of its Procurement Process as per the Annual Audit Plan of its Audit and Evaluation Committee (AEC). The Audit focused on the key areas of risk management, control, governance, as well as provide evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of its current processes.

Data Analysis

OCL does not prepare information on contracting activities undertaken that we could use for the purposes of analysis and sampling. However, by reviewing the financial transactions for the period covered by our audit (April, 2022 to March, 2024), we have been able to summarize the spending by procurement method and the number of contracts these spending related to below. It is important to note that the spending does not represent the contract value but the amounts incurred towards a specific contract during the audit period. This provides us with helpful information about the area we should focus in our audit.

Audit Objectives, Scope and Criteria

Objectives

The audit objectives are:

• to assess fairness, transparency and value for money in procurement activities; and
• to assess compliance with governmental procurement policies, guidelines and best practices.

Scope

The audit covered procurement and contracting activities from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2024.

The audit did not include issues related to the content and / or adequacy of the delivery of contracts or the goods and services procured through MOUs with other departments or agencies.

Criteria

The criteria were developed to address the effectiveness and adequacy of the core management controls that should be in place in federal government organizations, including independent Agent of Parliament like OCL.

Line of Enquiry (LoE)

7. LoE 1 – Governance: OCL has an effective Governance structure in place to monitor, receive reporting, and make decisions regarding procurement and contracting activities.
8. LoE 2 – Risk Management: OCL considers risk in a systematic manner in order to mitigate emerging risks and identify areas of improvement throughout the procurement and contracting lifecycle.
9. LoE 3 – Internal Controls: Procurement and contracting processes of OCL demonstrate an effective set of controls and compliance with relevant policies and guidelines, legislative requirements and promoting value for money, including favoring an open, fair and transparent process when applicable.

Criteria were developed for each LoE and are presented in Appendix A.

Audit Approach and Methodology

The conduct phase of the audit consisted of an assessment of the controls, processes and practices in place for the review, solicitation, award and management of contracts, including amendments.

The audit work was based on the Policy Framework adopted by OCL for procurement, which includes requirements for procurement and contracting in the Government of Canada.

We interviewed personnel with a vested interest in the ultimate success of the contractual process, and reviewed the documentation used to review and approve requirements, solicit bids and approve amendments in light of prevailing policy and guidelines.

We reviewed a number of contract files based on statistical sample size, selected using a risk-based judgmental approach, to confirm whether contract requests have been subject to appropriate review and approval requirements, bids have been solicited, awarded and amended in accordance prevailing policy, guidelines and with due consideration of value for money. The audit sample selected and related coverage is as follows:

Appendix A: Audit Criteria