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Auditor General's Report March 2004
CBC News Online | March 31, 2004


Auditor General Sheila Fraser
Auditor General Sheila Fraser's March report highlighted security issues, but also examined other topics including the regulation of medical equipment, protecting the environment from imported plants, and administration of government-funded scientific research. Here are some of the findings:

On issues of security:
  • The government does not have a set framework that allows it to prioritize threats to security and synchronize efforts of several departments and agencies to handle them.

  • Departments and agencies can't efficiently share security information.

  • "Watch lists" used to screen visa applicants, refugee claimants and travellers entering Canada are not consistently updated.

  • Information about lost and stolen passports is not available to front-line officers.

  • No funding was allocated to process scans produced by digital-fingerprint machines that were purchased with government funds.

  • Transport Canada has no access to RCMP criminal intelligence that could be used when screening airport employees. The audit estimated that 5.5 per cent of the individuals holding restricted area clearances at five major airports had criminal associations worth investigating.

"We were disappointed that some of the flaws we identified – the incomplete watch lists and the questionable reliability of some airport personnel, for example – were fundamental elements of routine security systems that were in place prior to September 2001. They should have been functioning more effectively at the time of our audit. These matters are serious and need to be addressed."

Other key points:

  • The National Research Council is in danger of outgrowing its financial resources. While the NRC owns about 180 buildings with plans for expansion, its secure funding is only short-term. Furthermore, the NRC is expected to face a significant increase in expenses as a result of the cost of building maintenance – 60 per cent of its existing buildings are more than 30 years old.
  • The NRC also needs to design a strategy to handle human resource issues such as shortages, compensations and succession of personnel.
  • Health Canada needs to enact a more stringent protocol for product inspection. The organization needs to become more watchful of product performance in the market to be able to handle problems when they occur. Any safety issues should be outlined to those receiving treatment. The audit also recommended that Health Canada immediately address the risks involved with the reuse of disposable devices.
  • The audit found that Health Canada is aware of problems with its Medical Devices Program but that the department has made little effort to correct them. Health Canada needs to improve human and financial resources for the program or design it to operate more effectively with fewer resources.

"One solution the Department should actively pursue is greater co-operation with other international regulators. This could increase the efficiency of the program and reduce the regulatory burdens on manufacturers."

  • The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has no formal system for examining and evaluating risks posed by unique imported plants.

    "The Agency needs to strengthen its regulatory processes in order to better protect the environment from the risks of plants with novel traits."

  • The Canada Revenue Agency needs to find out how many small and medium-sized businesses don't follow tax rules and why.

    "For the Canada Revenue Agency, increasing taxpayer compliance is a measure of success comparable to increasing net profit in a private-sector business. Both are bottom-line indicators of an organization's effectiveness."

  • Current government accounting encourages managers of departments and agencies to allocate their budgets based not on the cost of programs but on how much money they have left to spend – a practice the auditor general finds inefficient.





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