Financial Management Institute of Canada - Charles-Antoine St-Jean / Basia Ruta / Sylvain Michaud

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Is the Compliance of a Payment in Conflict with Political Pressures and the Urgency to Issue the Payment?
(in French)

Charles-Antoine St-Jean, FCA, CIPHA, Partner
National Public Sector Leader, Ernst & Young

Charles-Antoine St-Jean is the National partner for Public Sector in Canada for Ernst & Young and member of the Global Public Sector Council for Ernst & Young. He is currently advising many clients at the federal and provincial levels in Canada and abroad on public sector issues of governance and risk management, and helping develop the global public sector capabilities of Ernst & Young.

Prior to rejoining Ernst & Young in the fall of 2007, he served as the Comptroller General of Canada for 3 years where he led the rethinking of the Finance and Internal Audit Functions. He dealt with all financial management issues that the national government deals with, ranging from fiscal management issues, control frameworks of large programs, capacity constraints, risk management, standards settings and many more.

Prior to serving in the federal public sector, he worked with Ernst & Young and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as partner and vice-president, and earlier on in various capacities, in Canada and abroad for close to 30 years. Over the years, he worked with clients in the public sector, not-for profit, technology, telecommunications and banking sectors. During that period, he was also seconded twice to federal Crown Corporations to work in a financial management capacity.

He received his FCA designation from the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2006. L'Ordre des Comptables Agréés du Quebec granted him the same honor earlier this year . The UK Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy recently awarded him the honorary designation of CIPFA for his body of work for advancing the cause of financial management in the public sector. Last year, the FMI named him a life-time honorary member of the Institute.

Basia Ruta, CA, Assistant Deputy Minister,
Finance and Corporate Branch, Environment Canada

Since January 2006, Ms. Basia Ruta has assumed the position of Assistant Deputy Minister, Finance and Corporate Branch for Environment Canada (EC). As part of her role, she is EC’s Chief Financial Officer and the single point of accountability for the financial management of the Department ─ an over billion dollar-a-year funded organization. In addition, Ms. Ruta is responsible for ensuring proper stewardship over assets, contracting and EC’s environmental management as well as for programs and processes supporting the department’s governance, values and ethics regimes.

Ms. Ruta was appointed Assistant Comptroller General in December 2004. Among her key achievements was developing a new Policy on Internal Audit that is viewed as transforming internal audit across government, and leading edge for governments world-wide.

Ms. Ruta obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree (B.Comm.), Honours (Spec. Accounting) from the University of Ottawa. She is also a member of the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants, and has over 26 years of notable business experience.

Sylvain Michaud, Executive Director,
Internal Audit Sector, Office of the Comptroller General

Sylvain Michaud is the Executive Director of Operational Auditing at the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG), Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. As Executive Director, he is responsible for providing functional leadership and direction for horizontal audits led by the OCG.

Sylvain joined the Government of Canada in 2001 as Director, Internal Audit, at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In his position as Director, Sylvain oversaw the development and implementation of a multi-year audit plan. In 2008, Sylvain became the Chief Audit Executive for Public Safety Canada where he established an internal audit function.

Prior to joining the Government of Canada, Sylvain worked as an external auditor and a consultant in the field of risk management for various accounting firms in Ottawa, and as a manager in Internal Audit for the Bank of Canada.

Sylvain holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Ottawa. He is a Chartered Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor.