The Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (formerly known as CCAF) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and strengthening public sector performance audit, oversight and accountability in Canada and abroad. In 2013, we initiated a program to develop new performance audit methodology tools in the form of a series of Practice Guides. In October 2016, we released our Practice Guide to Auditing Oil and Gas Revenues and Financial Assurances for site remediation. This July, we are proud to publish a companion guide about the mining sector: Practice Guide to Auditing Mining Revenues and Financial Assurances for site remediation.

This new Practice Guide is the result of recent research and consultations with experienced performance auditors from Canada and several WGEI member countries. It provides information and guidance that will help auditors to complete the successive steps involved in planning, conducting, and reporting the results of an audit of the mining sector. This guidance will be especially useful to auditors who wish to audit:

• mining revenues, including royalties, fees, bonuses and penalties; and
• the financial assurance systems put in place by governments to manage the potential liabilities that may arise from the remediation of mining sites.

In addition to examples of audit questions, audit objectives and audit criteria, the Practice Guide includes information on the following topics:

• the range of government responsibilities in the mining sector.
• the typical life cycle of mining projects;
• the different types of revenues that governments can derive from the extraction of minerals;
• how financial assurance requirements help governments to manage potential financial liability associated with the remediation of mining sites; and
• recent performance audits on the mining sector from different countries.

A printable version of our latest Practice Guide has been made available on the WGEI website and can be accessed by clicking here. For any questions or comments on this document, please contact us at [email protected].

By making new guidance on auditing extractive industries available, the Foundation aims to help supreme audit institutions build their capacity in this regard and to contribute to WGEI’s efforts to develop tools that address the common challenges involved in auditing extractive industries.

By Pierre Fréchette