Thursday, June 2, 2022

The Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight has the honour to present its

FOURTH REPORT

Your committee, which for the purposes of integrity, independence, transparency and accountability, is authorized under rule 12-7(17) to act on its own initiative on certain matters, including retaining the services of internal and external auditors and overseeing such audits, and to report at least annually with observations and recommendations to the Senate, now reports as follows:

Your committee believes that it is clear from the changes to the Rules of the Senate adopted in October 2020, that the Senate intended to create an oversight body that would review Senate expenditures, that would deliberately remain at an arms-length and independent from the day-to-day administration and management of the institution. This intent for your committee to have a significant level of independence from the overall administration and management responsibilities of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration (CIBA) is reflected by the fact that a senator cannot simultaneously be a member of both committees (rule 12-3(4)) and that the chair of CIBA and the chair of your committee cannot be members of the same recognized party or recognized parliamentary group (rule 12-13(3)).

Therefore, to facilitate a proper audit and oversight function, and to ensure that your committee’s work is conducted at all times outside the Senate’s decision making process relating to the approval of expenditures, your committee makes the following recommendations:

1. That the Senate Audit and Oversight Charter, appended to this report, be adopted;

2. That the Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight be authorized to examine and report on the appropriate consequential amendments to the Rules of the Senate, that may be necessary for the implementation of the charter, in relation to the committee’s mandate and procedures; and that the committee present its report to the Senate no later than June 23, 2022;

3. That the Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight be also authorized to examine and report on the appropriate consequential amendments to chapter 3:05 of the Senate Administrative Rules, that may be necessary for the implementation of the charter, in relation to the financial rules and procedures for committees; and that the committee present its report to the Senate no later than June 23, 2022;

4. That the Senate Audit and Oversight Charter come into force on the first day after the day on which the Senate has adopted a report or reports presented pursuant to paragraph 2 of this report and paragraph 3 of this report.

5. That, for greater certainty, the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration repeal the Internal Audit Charter and the Policy on Internal Audit, currently in effect, once the revised charter comes into force.

Respectfully submitted,

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