Frequently Asked Questions

In this section:

  • How do I make an audit suggestion?
  • How many employees work at your office?
  • How do I apply for a job with your office?
  • Do you only hire accountants?
  • Recently graduated? Become a legislative auditor.
  • Who is the Provincial Auditor?
  • What does the Office do? How do you hold the Government accountable?
  • Who do you audit?
  • What types of audits do you do?
  • What are integrated audits?
  • What are performance audits?
  • How are performance audit topics chosen?
  • What are follow-up audits?
  • Audits we do not do
  • How do you ensure audit quality?
  • Is the Provincial Auditor part of the Government?
  • Why is the Provincial Auditor independent of the Government?
  • How is the Provincial Auditor different from an Auditor General?
  • Don’t Crown corporations have independent auditors doing this work already?
  • What is a parliamentary system of Government?
  • What is the Legislative Assembly?
  • Is the Government required to implement all of your audit recommendations?
  • Who is the Provincial Auditor accountable to?
  • Who audits the Provincial Auditor?
How do I make an audit suggestion?

For your audit suggestions, feedback, or concerns, you may use our Citizen Requests online form or send an email to info@auditor.sk.ca. Include your name, email and/or phone number if you want us to respond.

How many employees work at your office?

Our Office employs about 60 people, including several students working toward their Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designations.

How do I apply for a job with your office?

Learn more about working at our Office and current job opportunities at Careers.

Do you only hire accountants?

To have the right balance of skills, knowledge, and expertise, we need professional staff with a mix of financial and non-financial related skills. We employ staff with various educational backgrounds, such as in administration or IT, but the majority of our audit team hold their Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation or are working toward it.

Approximately one-third of the Office’s employees, in addition to being professional accountants, have other training or hold non-accounting designations (e.g., human resources, risk management, data analyst, information systems audit, pension plan administration, internal audit, public administration).

Recently graduated? Become a legislative auditor.

Our Office actively seeks recent or upcoming graduates, or co-op students in:

  • Accounting
  • Business Administration
  • Commerce

Apply today to become a legislative auditor with your cover letter, resume and transcripts to hr@auditor.sk.ca

With our team and the guidance of CPA mentors, you will gain practical work experience approved by CPA Saskatchewan to supplement achievement of your CPA designation and launch your professional career.

Within your first year in our Office, you will have the opportunity to plan and to complete small audits in a team environment. In addition, our auditors work on complex sections of larger audits. Audits are conducted on a wide range of industries and government sectors such as education, health, insurance, social services, finance, environment, and infrastructure.

Learn more about University Student and Graduate Recruitment and Co-op/Student Auditors at our Office.

Who is the Provincial Auditor?

The Legislative Assembly appointed Tara Clemett as Provincial Auditor in November 2021 who serves as the independent, external auditor of the Government for a fixed term of eight years.

What does the Office do? How do you hold the Government accountable?

The Provincial Auditor’s Office provides independent assurance and advice on the management, governance, and effective use of public resources. Our work is for the benefit of all legislators and Saskatchewan residents. See What We Do.

The Office’s work and reports provide legislators and the public with critical information on whether the Government issues reliable financial and other reports, uses effective processes to safeguard public resources, and complies with governing authorities.

In addition, the Office:

  • Supports and adheres to Canadian generally accepted assurance standards as published by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada)
  • Recommends improvements to the Government’s management of public resources and compliance with authorities
  • Encourages discussion and debate about public sector management and accountability issues
  • Assists the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Standing Committee on Crown and Central Agencies in carrying out their mandates in holding the Government to account
  • Develops professionals for public service
Who do you audit?

We audit the Government of Saskatchewan that is comprised of over 260 government agencies. These include ministries, boards, agencies, commissions, Crown corporations, the Saskatchewan Health Authority, universities and school divisions. Municipal governments are not included. Read Who Do We Audit?

What types of audits do you do?

We conduct three types of audits—integrated, performance and follow-up—to independently assess the government’s use of public resources. See Types of Audits. Integrated audits are done at government agencies on an annual basis, where performance and related follow-up audits look at a specific government agency’s processes more in-depth over a certain period of time.

Twice a year, in June and December, the Office compiles completed audit reports in two robust Report volumes that are released publicly once presented (tabled) at the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. View our public reports.

What are integrated (financial) audits?

Integrated audits are the annual financial audits of more than 260 government organizations and agencies that we are responsible for auditing. We examine the:

  • Effectiveness of their financial-related controls to safeguard public resources. Controls include processes to plan, evaluate, and coordinate financial activities
  • Compliance with authorities governing their activities related to financial reporting, safeguarding public resources, revenue raising, spending, borrowing, and investing
  • Reliability of financial statements for those agencies that prepare them
What are performance audits?

Performance audits take a more in-depth look at government agency programs, activities, systems, services, processes or organizations to determine whether it achieves its intended goals and objectives in an effective manner. This assessment informs recommendations to improve overall performance by determining whether the Agency’s management, governance, and use of public resources follows good practice and complies with relevant legislative authorities. See Performance Audits page for more information.

Our performance audits do not include assessing the appropriateness of Government’s policy decisions, rather we focus on the Government’s administration of public policy.

How are performance audit topics chosen?

Our annual planning process includes determining potential areas of focus for future performance work, considering new government programs, audits done by other Auditor Generals, high risk areas for Government, and concerns raised by the public and Legislators. We maintain a three-year performance work plan, which we publish annually in our Business and Financial Plan [Section 4.6], highlighting potential areas of focus for performance work.

As part of our planning processes, we use input from residents and Legislators. Input helps us to assess how a particular topic fits into our annual planning. We welcome your audit suggestions.

What are follow-up audits?

Follow up audits assess the sufficiency of actions taken to address recommendations made in our past performance audits, and those made by the Standing Committees on Public Accounts and on Crown and Central Agencies from their review of our Reports.

We do our first follow-up audit either two or three years after the initial audit, and every two or three years thereafter until the agency either implements the recommendations or we identify them as no longer relevant. We expect some recommendations will take government agencies a longer period to implement (e.g., five years).

When agencies act on our recommendations in a timely manner, it means public sector management is improving. The extent to which agencies implement recommendations demonstrates whether the recommendations reflect areas that are important to improve public sector management, and whether agencies act on them quick enough.

Audits we do not do

The Provincial Auditor does not audit individual cases such as disputes between private citizens and government agencies. The Office also does not audit areas under the exclusive jurisdiction of regional, municipal or Indigenous governments.

Should you have a question or concern about municipal governments, you may want to contact Saskatchewan’s Ombudsman.

How do you ensure audit quality?

The Office’s system of quality management promotes recognition to staff that quality is essential in audit work. It helps ensure the Office and staff comply with professional standards and legal requirements. It also ensures that our audit reports are reliable. The Office’s internal documentation, training materials, and staff appraisal procedures ensure staff are aware of and adhere to the Office’s quality management policies and procedures, and reinforce the view that quality is essential in its audit work. See Audit Quality to learn more.

Is the Provincial Auditor part of the Government?

No, the Provincial Auditor is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly under The Provincial Auditor Act. The Act gives the Provincial Auditor responsibility to audit all government agencies and report the results directly to the Legislative Assembly.

The Provincial Auditor Act provides the legislative framework for the independence of the Office and its staff. The Act makes employees of the Office part of the Legislative Branch of the Government. Employees of the Office are not part of the Executive Branch of Government or members of the public service of Saskatchewan.

Why is the Provincial Auditor independent of the Government?

Auditors must exercise objectivity and professional skepticism when assessing government use of public resources. Our work benefits legislators and Saskatchewan residents by advancing excellence and promoting confidence in public sector management. An important part of achieving our goals is operating independently of government. With complete independence, the Office can make decisions without being influenced by forces that could compromise our professional judgment or skepticism.

How is the Provincial Auditor different from an Auditor General?

The Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan is the equivalent of an Auditor General in other provinces and territories and the federal government. Though provincial and federal legislation vary somewhat, the overall responsibilities are similar—to serve legislators and the public as the independent auditor of the government.

In the Canadian parliamentary system, the provincial auditor or auditor general of each province is responsible for auditing the financial statements and operations of the government, the accounts of Crown agencies, as well as the administration of government agency programs, activities, systems, services, processes or organizations. They are independent and report to the public through the legislative assembly of their respective province.

Don’t Crown corporations have independent auditors doing this work already?

The Provincial Auditor Act requires the Office to audit all government agencies. For some government organizations, like Crown corporations, the Government appoints a second auditor (appointed auditor). In these circumstances, to serve the Assembly’s needs efficiently and effectively, the Office, the Crown corporation, and the appointed auditor use the recommendations of the Report of the Task Force on Roles, Responsibilities and Duties of Auditors to work cooperatively so the Office can report audit results to the Legislative Assembly

What is a parliamentary system of Government?

Canada is a parliamentary system of government that is a system of democratic governance where the executive branch of government is accountable to parliament or to the Legislative Assembly of each respective province (i.e., provincial parliament).

Saskatchewan operates on the parliamentary principle that the Assembly is accountable to the electorate, and the Executive Government is accountable to the Assembly. This accountability is considered to be enhanced by independent audits, in which our Office audits Executive Government and provides audit results to the Legislative Assembly. Learn more at Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

What is the Legislative Assembly?

The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan is the province’s governing body, our province’s parliament. Elected members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) debate, amend and pass laws.

The Legislative Assembly is assisted in its work by many Officers, including the Provincial Auditor, named in The Legislative Assembly Act, 2007, who report directly to the Assembly through the Speaker. All of the Office’s Reports are presented to the Speaker for tabling with the Legislative Assembly.  

Is the Government required to implement all of your audit recommendations?

No, but the Government acts on most of the recommendations, which shows we audit priority areas and make relevant recommendations. The all-party Standing Committees on Public Accounts and on Crown and Central Agencies review our reports, and either agree with our recommendations or make their own recommendations. They have asked our Office to monitor compliance with their recommendations and report on their status. Chapters within our Reports provide an update on the status of recommendation implementation by the Government. See Working With the Public Accounts Committee.

We follow up on our integrated audit recommendations annually. We follow up on our performance audit recommendations every two or three years until they have been implemented. These follow-up audits form part of the semi-annual Report tabled in the Legislative Assembly so legislators and the public are aware of the status of outstanding recommendations, and inquire about why they have not been addressed.

Some recommendations are complex and may take several years to fully implement.

Who is the Provincial Auditor accountable to?

The Office is accountable to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly through the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The Committee reviews and approves our budget annually. We also submit the following to the Committee:

  • Annual business and financial plan
  • Annual report on operations that includes audited financial statements and audited performance information
  • Human resource and financial management policies
  • Quarterly financial forecasts

The Office must also follow Canadian generally accepted assurance standards and be a member in good standing with the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Saskatchewan.

Who audits the Provincial Auditor?

The Lieutenant Governor in Council, upon the recommendation of the Public Accounts Committee, appoints an independent auditor to audit the Office each year. This auditor is not employed by our Office or the Government and is a member in good standing of a recognized accounting profession. Our current auditor is Virtus GroupLLP. See Who Audits the Auditor?