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Archived - Audit of the Management Process for Corrective Action Requests

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Audit

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) internal audit function provides the President, senior officials and agency managers with an independent capability to perform audits of the resources, systems, processes, structures and operational tasks of the CFIA. It helps the CFIA accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to assessing and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.

The internal audit function is accountable to the CFIA's Audit Committee, of which the President is a member. All internal audit findings and recommendations must be reported to the Audit Committee, and all audits must be carried out in accordance with federal policy and legislative requirements, including the 2012 Policy on Internal Audit and the 2006 Federal Accountability Act.

CFIA internal audit projects are selected based on highest significance during an annual agency planning process, which are then reflected in the Agency's Audit Plan for review by Audit Committee and approval of the President.

Overview

The object of this audit was to determine whether the CFIA's governance, risk management and control framework for managing Corrective Action Requests (CARs) is adequate.

The scope of the audit was limited to CARs issued under the Compliance Verification System inspection tool in both the CFIA's meat and feed rendering programs. The audit looked at CARs issued in fiscal years 2010-11 and 2011-12 as of September 30, 2011.

Key Findings

The audit found that components of the CFIA's control framework for managing CARs are in place. However, the audit has also proposed recommendations to improve the process. For each of these recommendations, the Agency has committed to the following actions:

  1. The CFIA should make the complete compliance history of an establishment readily accessible.
    • Work is underway to link related CAR databases across the Agency by the fall of 2013.
  2. The CFIA should develop a risk-based approach to effectively manage CARs.
    • The CFIA is implementing an approach where food inspections would be assigned based on risk. This approach would assist Agency management in monitoring and closing CARs.
  3. The CFIA should provide information about CARs in timely fashion to Agency management.
    • The CFIA has already updated its procedures and briefed Area and Regional management to actively monitor CARs on a regular basis.
  4. The CFIA should develop policies to standardize the level of detail in CARs.
    • Work is underway to make sure that compliance verification data is captured and managed consistently. Inspection staff will be trained to understand what changes are in order.

Complete report:

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