2008
Interdepartmental

On March 14, 2008, Newfoundland and Labrador became the first province in the country to designate the Office of the Comptroller General as an accredited Chartered Accountant training office. This groundbreaking achievement resulted from the collaborative efforts of team members from the Department of Finance, Executive Council and the Public Service Commission. The team’s vision and dedication were instrumental in attaining this designation.

The Office of the Comptroller General and the Provincial Government as a whole has traditionally been challenged to attract and retain qualified financial professionals. In partnership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Newfoundland and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the team developed a training program that met the rigorous standard of work experience and competency development required for this professional designation. This unique professional training opportunity was previously only available to individuals employed by chartered accounting firms or with the offices of an Auditor General.

This accomplishment represents a positive step forward for the province’s overall human resource requirements by expanding the opportunities available to train professionally designated accountants and ultimately increasing the number of Memorial University graduates and others to be employed with the Provincial Government. This will help build the expertise and lay the groundwork for succession planning needed to effectively manage public funds in the future.

This achievement demonstrates Newfoundland and Labrador’s ability to be a national leader as this province’s Office of the Comptroller General has now become the standard by which other provinces will be compared, as they too move to become accredited.