2021 Report Volume 2

December 8, 2021

Our 2021 Report, Volume 2 includes the results of four performance audits, 20 follow-up audits, and 163 annual integrated audits. Appendix 1 of the Report lists the agencies audited, and those with significant findings included in this Report.

Chapters in this Report cover a wide array of topics, including:

  • Income support programs
  • Conducting timely and accurate coroner investigations
  • Cybersecurity and preventing cyberattacks
  • Awarding arts grants impartially and transparently
  • Monitoring quality of care in homes supporting adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Rehabilitating adult inmates
  • Inspecting elevating devices
  • Increasing graduation rates and school instruction time
  • Providing legal aid services

 

Media Materials 2021 Report Vol. 2

Download the Full Report

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(For selective viewing please click on an individual chapter from the list below)

Overview by the Provincial Auditor

Tara Clemett's Complete Overview 2021 Report—Volume 2

This is our fourth Report on results of audits since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic continues to impact us, and the world. The constraints of the pandemic affect how our Office audits, and our audit priorities. For example, ongoing and shifting public health orders resulted in us completing most of our audits in this Report remotely and, in many cases, taking additional time to complete them.

We shifted some audit resources to our annual integrated audits to examine government spending on additional pandemic-response and stimulus programs, and use of related federal funding. This 2021 Report – Volume 2 reports the results of our work in relation to some of these significant COVID-19 financial support programs (Chapter 1).

We continue to balance the needs of legislators and the public for timely information about government programs and services greatly disrupted by the pandemic, while managing implications of conducting audits remotely and at agencies immersed in the response. We know some agencies are fully deployed in providing services during the pandemic (such as the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency), which impacts typical audit timeframes and priorities. We extend our appreciation to all agencies that accommodated and cooperated with audits to ensure our Office completes quality work that continues to advance excellence and inspire confidence in the public sector.

In this Report, numerous chapters address specific programs and practices impacting public safety and the well-being of Saskatchewan residents from monitoring tobacco and vapour products’ legislation enforcement to detecting wildfires.

Another theme that emerged in this Report is data collection and analysis whereby agencies inadequately obtained or used meaningful and reliable information to effectively oversee and enhance certain government programs. Whether post-secondary education, inmate rehabilitation, school instruction time, or legal aid lawyer caseloads, having and utilizing key performance information improves decision-making and identifies where improvements are needed to achieve public-service objectives. 

Table of Contents

2021 Report Volume 2 Table of Contents

Annual Integrated and Information Technology Audits

  1   COVID-19 Financial Support Programs

  2   Advanced Education

  3   eHealth Saskatchewan

  4   Energy and Resources

  5   Executive Council

  6   Government Relations—Northern Municipal Trust Account

  7   Healthcare Affiliates

  8   Highways

  9   Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute

 10  Provincial Capital Commission

 11  Saskatchewan Health Authority

 12  Social Services

 13  Water Security Agency

 14  Summary of Implemented Recommendations

Performance Audits

 15  Health—Monitoring Enforcement of Tobacco and Vapour Products’ Legislative Requirements

 16  Justice and Attorney General—Coroners Service: Conducting Timely and Accurate Coroner Investigations

 17  Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation—Preventing Cyberattacks

 18  Social Services—Monitoring Quality of Care in Homes Supporting Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Follow-Up Audits

 19  Advanced Education—Working with the Advanced Education Sector to Achieve Ministry Strategies

 20  Corrections, Policing and Public Safety—Rehabilitating Adult Inmates

 21  Education—Increasing Grade 12 Graduation Rates

 22  Education—Instruction Time

 23  Education—Monitoring Kindergarten Students’ Readiness to Learn in the Primary Grades

 24  Finance—Implementing the Revenue Administration Modernization Project

 25  Government Relations—Proposing Education Property Tax Mill Rates

 26  Health—Coordinating the Appropriate Provision of Helicopter Ambulance Services

 27  Health—Coordinating the Use of Lean

 28  Health—Monitoring Opioid Prescribing and Dispensing

 29  Immigration and Career Training—Outcomes-Based Contracts

 30  Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Saskatchewan—Providing Property Guardianship Services to Adult Clients
 31  Saskatchewan Arts Board—Awarding Grants Impartially and Transparently

 32  Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation—Managing Succession of Human Resources

 33  Saskatchewan Health Authority—Delivering Provincially Funded Childhood Immunizations in La Ronge and Surrounding Area

34   Saskatchewan Legal Aid Commission—Providing Legal Aid Services

35   Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency—Alerting the Public about Imminently Dangerous Events

36   Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency—Detecting Wildfires

37   Social Services—Supervising Community-Based Organizations Delivering Programs to Intellectually Disabled People

38   Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan—Inspecting Elevating Devices

Standing Committees

39   Standing Committee on Crown and Central Agencies

40   Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Appendices

1     Agencies Subject to Examination Under The Provincial Auditor Act and Status of Audits

2     Report on the Financial Statements of Agencies Audited by Appointed Auditors

3     Samples of Opinions We Form on Ministries, Crown Agencies, and Crown-Controlled Corporations

All Prior Reports

All prior reports are available here for your reference.

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