QUESTION 1 (20 marks, 50 minutes)
Grand River Health Authority (Grand River) has an annual budget of $157 million and is responsible for the running of two hospitals in the Northeast Ontario. A recent review by the provincial Auditor General criticized Grand River for lack of leadership, direction, and planning. It gave Grand River lowest marks for labour relations, risk management, and information technology.
There have been severe delays in patient treatments and some patients have had to wait fifteen months for scans and cancer treatments. A significant factor in these delays was the lack of cancer specialists, nurses, and radiologists. Temporary staff hold many senior positions at the two hospitals. Grand River also missed its targets for reducing the number of …show more content…
Many of the frauds were committed against Grand River by employees and outside suppliers and ranged in estimated financial loss from $5,000 to $1.9 million. Last year there were two serious instances of non-financial irregularity when Grand River manipulated performance statistics reported to the provincial government. The Ministry of Health had informed Grand River if the financial misreporting continues, it will cut back on the Hospital’s level of funding. The Ministry’s funding is Grand River’s primary source of funding. Given the economic downturn and the past frauds and data manipulation, Grand River is finding it difficult to raise additional money through fundraising efforts.
As a result of all the problems, Grand River’s audit committee decided to implement an internal audit department. In the past it had outsourced various internal audit assignments. The audit committee of Grand River has highlighted two main ways in which it considers that the internal audit department will add value. They are:
• To provide assurance that major business risks are being managed
Grand River Health Authority (Grand River) has an annual budget of $157 million and is responsible for the running of two hospitals in the Northeast Ontario. A recent review by the provincial Auditor General criticized Grand River for lack of leadership, direction, and planning. It gave Grand River lowest marks for labour relations, risk management, and information technology.
There have been severe delays in patient treatments and some patients have had to wait fifteen months for scans and cancer treatments. A significant factor in these delays was the lack of cancer specialists, nurses, and radiologists. Temporary staff hold many senior positions at the two hospitals. Grand River also missed its targets for reducing the number of …show more content…
Many of the frauds were committed against Grand River by employees and outside suppliers and ranged in estimated financial loss from $5,000 to $1.9 million. Last year there were two serious instances of non-financial irregularity when Grand River manipulated performance statistics reported to the provincial government. The Ministry of Health had informed Grand River if the financial misreporting continues, it will cut back on the Hospital’s level of funding. The Ministry’s funding is Grand River’s primary source of funding. Given the economic downturn and the past frauds and data manipulation, Grand River is finding it difficult to raise additional money through fundraising efforts.
As a result of all the problems, Grand River’s audit committee decided to implement an internal audit department. In the past it had outsourced various internal audit assignments. The audit committee of Grand River has highlighted two main ways in which it considers that the internal audit department will add value. They are:
• To provide assurance that major business risks are being managed