Proactive Disclosure — Departmental Audit Committees (DAC)

Why must we disclose Departmental Audit Committees (DAC) expenses?

The Government of Canada has implemented a series of measures to strengthen public sector management by enhancing transparency and oversight of public resources in the federal government.

One of these measures includes the proactive disclosure of financial-related information by departments and agencies. By making this information readily available on departmental web sites, Canadians and Parliament are better able to hold the Government and public sector officials to account.

As per April 1^st 2018, The Financial Administration Act requires that deputy heads of large departments establish an independent departmental audit committee that includes a majority of external members who have been recruited from outside the federal public administration. DACs report directly to deputy heads of federal departments. Policy on Internal Audit and Directive on Internal Audit provide that a deputy head and the Comptroller General of Canada shall jointly select external audit committee members for approval by the Treasury Board. Departments must disclose proactively all remuneration and expenses of individual external departmental audit committee members.

Who is responsible for disclosing the information?

Departments are responsible for completing the DAC Members Proactive Disclosure Template and posting within the specified time period on the Open Government Portal.

What information should be disclosed?

Departments must disclose proactively all remuneration and expenses of individual external departmental audit committee members. This includes travel expenditures, as we well as remuneration earned for days actually spent performing the following duties and responsibilities: attendance at meeting, reasonable preparation time, travel time and time spent at training or orientation.

Disclosed expenditures should reflect the amount incurred during the reporting period and approved for processing; not necessarily the amount that has been paid out to the member.

DAC related hospitality expenditures should not be included in this process and continue to be disclosed proactively in accordance with the Directive on Travel, Hospitality, Conference and Event Expenditures

When is the reporting period?

Deadline for submitting the DAC Members Proactive Disclosure Template

Departments are required to publish their DAC member's proactive disclosure information on the Open Government Portal within 45 days of the end of the reporting period. Please refer to the reporting period schedule below (based on fiscal year 2018-2019).

Please note: When the deadline date falls on a weekend or a holiday, departments must submit the information by the last business day before the weekend or holiday in question.

For additional information, please contact the proactive disclosure unit at the following email address: NC-PROACTIVE-FINANCIAL-REPORTING-GD@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/audit-evaluation/departmental-audit-committees.html