Office of the Legal Advisor to the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces
August 2010

5. OBSERVATIONS – INTERFACES WITH OTHER JUSTICE SECTORS

There is compliance with key government legislation and policies.

The DND processes the DND/CF LA’s O&M-related transactions, including all procurements valued at $5,000 or more. Based on pre- and post-transactional processing testing undertaken by the ADM Finance and Corporate Service’s organization in 2009, the DND/CF was found to be in compliance with the requirements of the Financial Administration Act. No significant issues were identified that the DND/CF LA needed to address.

The DND/CF LA complies with the requirements of the Official Languages Act. Services are provided to the client in the language of choice, and many of the staff are bilingual. Audit team meetings with DND/CF LA’s lawyers alternated between discussions in English and French. There are visible minorities working in the DND/CF LA and the 2009-2010 Business Plan notes that there are no gaps in any designated employment equity groups.

It is the opinion of the audit team that the DND/CF LA is in compliance with these key government legislative and central agency policy requirements governing its operations.