The Ministry obtained insufficient information concerning the timeliness and quality of services
provided and did not have adequate oversight over adjustments to the corporate structure, intercompany transactions, and the procurement process.5 These oversight failures prevented the
Ministry from identifying deficiencies in the allocation of ORNGE’s limited resources.
How Can CPAs Respond?
Instead of waiting for the Auditor General to investigate an organization once a scandal has been
exposed, CPAs can provide annual assurance on whether boards and other governing bodies are
providing effective oversight in line with the stated performance agreement. They can also provide recommendations for improved performance measures. In the case of ORNGE, CPAs can
compare the mandate, policies, and expectations to actual performance and industry norms to
ensure the results are defensible to the public and other external constituents. CPA services will
be more extensive than non-CPA consultant services due to their vast business and industry expertise. This expansive knowledge will allow multiple performance dimensions to be assessed in
an objective, independent manner during a single engagement, instead of the current practice of
single dimension consulting (e.g. just on compensation benchmarking).
How CPAs Can Recommend Effective Performance Measures
The goals over performance measurement in NFPOs and public sector agencies are to:
•
Continuously monitor and assess performance of various programs;
•
Provide useful (reliable and relevant) reports for internal and external use on the efficiency and economy of operational management of programs;
•
Ensure data collected to support evaluation is of high integrity and quality; and
•
Make timely and informed decisions based on information collected.6
Performance measurement allows management and those charged with governance to understand
why a program is, or is not, achieving its desired outcomes.
What To Measure
To determine which controls and measures to use, we must first ask the following two questions:
1. What outcome is desired?
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