Item - 2020.AU6.6

During the review of the Order Paper on October 27, 2020, City Council adopted a procedural motion to remove this Item from the Audit Committee and bring it forward to City Council for consideration.

The Audit Committee recommends that: 

1.  City Council receive the report (October 8, 2020) from the Auditor General for information.

The Auditor General undertakes a risk-based approach to audit selection. To identify audit priorities for her Audit Work Plan, every five years the Auditor General performs an extensive risk assessment of the operations of the City divisions and its major agencies and corporations included in her mandate. The results of the Auditor General's last city-wide risk assessment were reported in 2015. In accordance with the Auditor General's 2020 Audit Work Plan, the Auditor General initiated a city-wide risk and opportunity assessment in early 2020.

The purpose of the Auditor General's city-wide risk and opportunity assessment is to inform the development of her risk-based Audit Work Plan. It helps to ensure that all significant areas of the City are evaluated from an audit risk perspective by using uniform criteria to identify areas that may warrant audit attention. Determining which areas to audit and the appropriate allocation of audit resources is essential in maximizing the value of an effective audit process.

The Auditor General's 2020 city-wide risk and opportunity assessment is still underway and the purpose of this report is to inform the Audit Committee of progress to date.

In 2020, the Auditor General's city-wide risk and opportunity assessment also includes the Toronto Public Library and Toronto Police Service. Both of these Boards have requested the Auditor General to perform this assessment. The proposed risk-based audit plans will be reported to their separate Boards in October/November 2020, before they are presented to the City Audit Committee. We would like to include any emerging higher risk audit areas in the Auditor General's 2021 Audit Work Plan which will be presented to Audit Committee in November 2020. The potential audit projects that can be completed will be subject to available resourcing.

We plan to report our preliminary results as part of the Auditor General's 2021 Audit Work Plan with additional updates next year.