External Quality Assessment (/External Practice Inspection)

Internal Audit
The scope of the contract includes an external assessment of HICC’s internal audit function (or the Internal Audit Directorate), as well as the evaluation function (or the Evaluation Directorate, which is where the joint and audit evaluation team is housed, as well, and may be included as part of the practice inspection process/assessment) to determine conformance with the requirements of the Policy on Internal Audit and its Directive on Internal Audit, and examining the function’s adherence to the Institute of Internal Audit’s (IIA) International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF), the effectiveness of the integrated audit and evaluation plan (i.e. which encompasses the risk-based audit plan and the departmental evaluation plan), the impact of the function on governance and risk management. Definition of Internal Auditing, the Code of Ethics, and the IIA’ Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS); per IIA Standard 8.4, External Quality Assessment.

The practice inspection is to cover the entire spectrum of audit and consulting work performed by HICC’s internal audit function, including all related resources, activities, and processes. It is expected that, to the extent possible, the external assessor will pick up from the results of the last external practice inspection conducted in fiscal year (FY) 2021-22.

Evaluation
The objective of the inclusion of the Evaluation is to provide an objective assessment of the state of evaluation function’s project management at HICC as well as to recommend potential opportunities for further project management integration between both evaluation and internal audit practices. 

The assessment will be conducted by an external consulting resource - with support provided by an internal resource from the evaluation team for the purpose of assisting in the collection of necessary data and providing guidance on deliverables.

Tasks will require a review of the evaluation function that includes, but is not limited to, the requirements of the 2016 Policy on Results and Directive on Results set out by TBS. Proposed themes will be determined using TBS requirements, applicable professional practices, and areas of interest to the evaluation function at HICC (e.g. enablers for use of evaluation).