Background: (See section 2.1 of the RFPQ)
Under the authority of the Auditor General Act (the “AG Act”), the Office of the Auditor General is the external auditor that provides independent, credible assurance on the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Province of Alberta as well as the financial statements of most provincial agencies, regulated funds, boards, and commissions. The entities we audit provide a wide range of services and programs in areas as diverse as healthcare, energy regulation, education and environment. To provide assurance, we assess whether financial statements are free from material errors and are fairly presented in accordance with appropriate accounting standards. Financial statement audits comprise approximately 70% of our audit work with the remaining 30% being Performance (Value for Money) auditing, where we examine how well specific government programs and services are being managed and delivered.
The applicable financial reporting frameworks used by the entities we audit in our financial statement audits include Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards as issued by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, and Part 1 (International Financial Reporting Standards) and Part IV (Pension plan standards) as issued by the Canadian Accounting Standards Board. We use the Canadian Auditing Standards as issued by the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Board, and our financial statement audit methodology is CPA Canada’s PEG (Professional Engagement Guide) for audit engagements, adapted for the public sector.
In the execution of our audit work, the Auditor General relies on audit working paper software for, among other things, storing of working papers in Word and Excel, guiding audit work via audit programs and audit methodology, documenting results of audit testing and execution of audit methodology electronic review and signoff, recording of execution of audit programs, tracking of status of completion of audit work, implementing role‐based access controls, and ensuring security and confidentiality of audit information.
The Auditor General is seeking Proponents that can provide a Solution(s) primarily for executing financial statement audit engagements. For financial statement auditing the Solution should support a PEG-based audit methodology and allows for Customization necessary for the legislative environment in which we operate.
