Response to Parliamentary Committees and External Audits

Response to Parliamentary Committees

N/A

Response to the Auditor General (including to the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development)

Internal Audit Status Report:

The Office of the Auditor General's Audit Status Report entitled Internal Audit was tabled in Parliament on June 6, 2011. The audit report included one recommendation, as follows:

3.80 Departments that have not had an external quality assessment should have an assessment conducted as required by the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing and the Treasury Board Policy on Internal Audit.

The audit report and the CBSA response to the recommendation can be found at the following link:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_201106_03_e_35371.html.

Issuing Visas:

The Office of the Auditor General's Audit Report entitled Issuing Visas was tabled in Parliament on November 22, 2011. The audit report included six recommendations in total, with the following four recommendations pertaining to the CBSA:

2.36 The Canada Border Services Agency and Citizenship and Immigration Canada should ensure that operational manuals, risk indicators, and relevant country-specific information are complete, up to date, and made available to visa officers in a timely manner to help them identify foreign nationals who may be inadmissible.

2.47 The Canada Border Services Agency should ensure that all information that can be obtained from security partners and is relevant to security screening is used to provide advice to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

2.63 The Canada Border Services Agency should:

• implement a quality assurance process to ensure the consistency and quality of information and advice provided by analysts to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC);
• ensure that analysts have adequate training, support, and tools to perform their duties;
• establish service standards for the timeliness of security screening based on the needs of CIC and its own capacity and that of its security partners; and
• measure the effectiveness of its security screening to ensure that it meets the needs of CIC in a timely manner.

2.94 Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency should fully implement their joint risk management and performance measurement strategies and monitor the results.

The audit report and the responses to each recommendation can be found at the following link:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_201111_02_e_35934.html.

Border Controls on Commercial Imports:

The Office of the Auditor General's Audit Report entitled Border Controls on Commercial Imports was tabled in Parliament on April 3, 2012. The audit report included four recommendations in total, with the following three recommendations pertaining to the CBSA:

1.21 To define and clarify roles, responsibilities, policies, and procedures for administering import requirements, the Canada Border Services Agency and Health Canada should prepare and finalize annexes for all programs identified in their 15 November 2011 umbrella memorandum of understanding. The Canada Border Services Agency should then document or update instructions to border services officers for these programs and products.

1.29 The Canada Border Services Agency should ensure that the Process Monitoring Framework reporting includes enough information for the Agency to assess whether border controls are working as intended, share the results with relevant federal organizations, and act on the results.

1.43 The Canada Border Services Agency should implement a quality assurance process for its automated target monitoring reports, and develop a means to monitor and report on the effectiveness of border lookouts.

The audit report and the responses to each recommendation can be found at the following link:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_201204_01_e_36465.html.

External Audits: (Note: These refer to other external audits conducted by the Public Service Commission of Canada or the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages)

N/A

External Audits: (Note: These refer to other external audits conducted by the Public Service Commission of Canada or the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages)

OAG Audit of Expenditures for the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits:

The Office of the Auditor General's Audit Report entitled Expenditures for the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits was tabled in Parliament on June 6, 2011. While the audit report did involve the CBSA, it did not include any recommendations pertaining to the CBSA.

The audit report can be found at the following link:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_201104_01_e_35220.html.

OPC Audit of Privacy and Air Travel:

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) performed an audit of the CBSA entitled Privacy and Air Travel. The results of this audit were communicated to the CBSA via management letter on July 7, 2011.