Auditor General of Canada

The Auditor General of Canada (French: La vérificatrice générale du Canada^[a]) is a Supreme audit institution which acts as an officer to the Parliament of Canada tasked with highlighting accountability and oversight by conducting independent financial audits of federal government's operations.^[4] These performance audits, known as the Auditor-General's Report provide members of parliament with objective evidence to help them examine the government's activities and hold it to account and improve good governance among public officers included.

Auditor General of Canada
La vérificatrice générale du Canada
Incumbent Karen Hogan since June 3, 2020
Abbreviation	OAG
Reports to	Parliament of Canada
Nominator	Prime Minister of Canada
Appointer	Governor in Council
Term length	10 years non-renewable
Constituting instrument	Auditor General Act
First holder	John Langton
Salary	$334,500/year (Equal to that of a Puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada)[1][2]
Website	www.oag-bvg.gc.ca

Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Bureau du verificauteur general du Canada
Agency overview
Formed	1878
Headquarters	C.D. Howe Building, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Employees	552
Annual budget	$88 million (2019)[3]

Karen Hogan was appointed Auditor General of Canada in June 2020.^[5] She replaced interim Auditor General of Canada Sylvain Ricard.^[6]

Office

Auditors general are appointed by the governor general in council (cabinet) on advice of the House of Commons and Senate for a non-renewable term of ten years. An auditor general may only be removed for cause by the governor-in-council with the approval of both the House of Commons and Senate. The Oversight and Accountability (a/k/a the Federal Accountability Act) and Auditor General Act gives this body substantial independence from both cabinet and Head of Government control.

The auditor general's responsibilities include:

• auditing operations of the federal and territorial governments
• providing Parliament and the legislative assemblies with independent information, assurance, and advice regarding the stewardship of public funds^[6]

On November 4, 2011, the prime minister appointed Michael Ferguson, former Auditor General of the province of New Brunswick, as Auditor General of Canada, effective November 28, 2011. Sylvain Ricard, having been previously the deputy auditor general, was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 29, 2019, to serve until a permanent replacement was selected.^[7]

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. five years in a row (2008–2012), and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine.^[8]

The commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, was created by Parliament in 1995 as an aide to the AGC, and has offices within the precinct of the AGC. The commissioner is empowered under the 1995 amendments to the Auditor-General Act to receive "petitions on environmental and sustainable development matters and [to] require ministers to respond to them".^[9] The petition process requires the ministry to respond in 120 days, although the process may be delayed by litigation.^[9]

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada is located in the C.D. Howe Building in Ottawa.

History

The role of auditor general was introduced in 1878 and prior to the creation it was the head of the audit board (1867–1878).

In 1971, the auditor general's office hosted VII INCOSAI, the seventh triennial convention of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.^[10]

List of auditors general of Canada

Auditor general	Appointed	Departed
John Langton[b]	1867	1878
John Lorn McDougall	1878	1905
John Fraser	1905	1919
Edward Davenport Sutherland	1919	1923
Georges Gonthier	1924	1939
Robert Watson Sellar	1940	1959
Andrew Maxwell Henderson	1960	1973
James J. Macdonell	1973	1980
Michael H. Rayner[c]	1980	1981
Kenneth M. Dye	1981	1991
Denis Desautels	1991	2001
Sheila Fraser	2001	2011
John Wiersema[d]	2011	2011
Michael Ferguson	2011	2019
Sylvain Ricard[e]	2019	2020
Karen Hogan[6]	2020	Incumbent

Affiliations and Membership(s)

• Association des Institutions Supérieures de Contrôle Ayant en Commun l'usage du français (AISCCUF)^[11]
• The Commonwealth AG Conference (Participant)^[12]
• The Panel of External Auditors of the United Nations (Observer)^[13]

Notes

1. Is called Le vérificateur général du Canada when a man is holding the position
2. Held the position as Head of the Audit Board
3. Acting
4. Interim
5. Interim

See also

• Court of Accounts
• Court of Audit
• Parliament of Canada
• Auditor(s) General of the provinces and territories
  • British Columbia
  • Manitoba
  • Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Nova Scotia
  • Ontario
  • Quebec

Further reading

• "Auditor General" (January 1982). "Observations by the Auditor General on the Financial Statements of the Government of Canada". ResearchGate.net. ResearchGate. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
• Dubois, Raymond (1990). "Accountability in Parliament: The Role of the Auditor General". Ontario Legislative Library. www.revparl.ca. Vol 13, no 1. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Parliamentary Review. Legislator of Ontario. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
• Thomas Neil. Cyopeck (January 2002). "Public service reform and the role of the Auditor General". ResearchGate.net. ResearchGate. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
• Sutherland, S.L. (January 2008). "On the Audit Trail of the Auditor General: Parliament's Servant, 1973-1980". ResearchGate.net. Ottawa, Ontario: ResearchGate. Canadian Parliamentary Review. doi:10.1111/j.1754-7121.1980.tb00320.x. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
• Sutherland, Sharon L. (January 2008). "The politics of audit: the federal Office of the Auditor General in comparative perspective". ResearchGate.net. Toronto, Ontario: ResearchGate. Canadian Parliamentary Review. doi:10.1111/j.1754-7121.1986.tb00397.x. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
• writer (June 2011). "Discussion Paper: An Aboriginal Auditor General" (PDF). www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca (Discussion Paper). Gatineau, Quebec. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved December 30, 2024. Discussion paper prepared for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) Audit Committee
• Reed, John; Casiple, Lynne; Fréchette, Pierre; Gauthier, Yves; Genest, Yves; Hyatt, Laurel; Oulton, James; Wieczoreck, Nicole (November 2017). "Establishing a First Nations Auditor-General - A CAAF Research Paper" (PDF). www.caaf-fcar.ca (Research Paper). Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation. Retrieved December 30, 2024. This research paper was prepared for the Assembly of First Nations and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.