Canada's auditor general, Karen Hogan, has shared her thoughts on how Australia can follow Canada's example to drive change and ensure continuous performance improvement in government administration. 

Speaking at the 2023 'Impact - auditor of the future' conference, Hogan explained that Canada has been working on short-form, digitally accessible, plain-language audit reports that rely heavily on data and infographics.

However, she acknowledged that there has been some pushback from government agencies, with one group recently telling her that reducing audit report findings to infographics was a form of “propaganda”. 

Hogan emphasised the need to walk public servants through these reforms to ensure that the change management is effective.

“When we have a parliamentary hearing, we always sit there with the entities being audited, and Parliament last week asked them questions. I often [parliamentarians] now turn and say; ‘Okay, so I think I understood what the entity said, but could you explain it to me a little more in plain language?’,” she said.

Canada has recently developed a large database of findings drawn from its audit projects, with the aim of giving parliamentarians a dashboard to view trends over time. 

Hogan hopes this tool will be helpful to new lawmakers who are trying to identify problem issues in government administration and how they can be addressed.

To maximise the impact of its auditors, Canada has attempted to coordinate more cross-jurisdictional audits at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. 

Hogan believes that auditing the way government delivers programs horizontally, either across many departments or jurisdictions, can drive meaningful change and have an impact on the lives of Canadians.

“Our institutions didn't always have access to spreadsheets or electronic spreadsheets, internet, or even computers - but now, we just can't imagine doing our work without Microsoft Teams,” Hogan said. 

“Even if changes can be uncomfortable, with time even the most drastic changes can soon become the new normal.”