2012 Award Submission Summaries
Canadian International Development Agency
The financial risk management team of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has demonstrated the extent to which it is feasible for a motivated, dedicated team to innovate, improve financial management of public funds and maintain sound accountability with limited resources.
The team developed and implemented risk management tools designed to:
- Better focus the audits of contribution recipients’ financial compliance.
- Coordinate and harmonize financial compliance audits performed by CIDA and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).
- Systematically and consistently evaluate fiduciary risk associated with recipients administering CIDA investments and hence enhance risk management.
- Share risk evaluations internally as well as with DFAIT so as to avoid duplication of tasks and improve future evaluations.
- Reduce the administrative burden for trusted low-risk partners and as a result reduce employee work load while providing sound financial management of public funds.
The team accomplished all this within a very short timeframe and despite major challenges.
Nominated by Sue Stimpson, Chief Financial Officer, Canadian International Development Agency.
Department of Justice Canada
In 2008 Daniel Schnob Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Justice volunteered to manage and support the FI Developmental Program. The FI Development Program was developed in order to provide financial officers (FI-02 to FI-04 levels) the opportunity to reflect on their personal career vision, identify their developmental needs, create realistic career and learning objectives, and upgrade their professional and core skill sets and leadership/management competencies.
The FI Developmental Program steering committee is comprised of twenty participating government departments and the Office of the Comptroller General. The growth of the program has been phenomenal over the last three years and has been a wonderful success.
Mr. Schnob and his team have strived to deliver excellence in their support of the FI Developmental Program and will continue to do so in the future.
Nominated by Margaret DeMerchant, Manager, Project Management & Finance Community Development, Chief Financial Officer Branch – Department of Justice Canada.
Group of Departments/Agencies*
(*Consisting of: Canadian Environment Assessment Agency; Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat; Canadian International Development Agency; Canada Revenue Agency; Community of Federal Agencies; Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada; Public Works and Government Services Canada; and Treasury Board of Canada)
For the first time, after years of study and conflicting directions, Small Departments and Agencies (SDAs) have united with a strong voice and passionate commitment to outline a single financial management strategy for their community. Their efforts, over the past year, have enabled the building of a robust blueprint that includes common processes and data standards flowing from the Office of the Comptroller General, underpinned by a common system infrastructure, as recommended by the Chief Information Officer Branch that interconnects with other disciplines such as human resources.
This innovative, consolidated approach to financial management for and across SDAs signals that radical change can be achieved through a mixture of strong collaboration, enthusiasm and willingness.
Nominated by Daniel J. Caron, Deputy Head and Librarian and Archivist of Canada and Chair, Heads of Federal Agencies, Library and Archives Canada.
2011 Award Submission Summaries
National Film Board of Canada
The digital revolution is having a profound impact on our society. It is our industrial revolution. It touches everything and changes everything: how we organize our lives personally, socially, economically, politically and culturally. It creates new industries, transforms traditional industries and alters the organization of work and social relations. It provokes change with a rapidity and continuousness that we have never before experienced; and nowhere more so than in the telecom and audio-visual industries.
Four years ago, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) faced the digital revolution with a top-heavy structure solidly entrenched in old modes of production, an accretion of systems and practices that were cumbersome and costly, and with no new money to invest in the substantial capital requirements to make the digital shift. Within short order the NFB managed to turn itself around, streamline its structures and working methods, generate internal savings and efficiencies to finance its move to digital and become a recognized world leader in this domain. Ms. Luisa Frate was one of the chief strategists behind this transformation.
Nominated by Tom Perlmutter, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson, National Film Board of Canada.
Department of National Defence
On April 6, 2010, the Department of National Defence/Canadian Forces (DND/CF) successfully launched the Defence Resource Management Information System (DRMIS). The implementation of DRMIS marked the culmination of 18 months of hard work, dedication and expertise by the Single Instance Team to achieve the mandate of consolidation and harmonization of the department’s two previously distinct SAP systems, the Financial Management Accounting System (FMAS) and the Material Acquisition and Support Information System (MASIS), into a single, common, integrated and expandable platform of SAP. DRMIS is the first step in the implementation of the Defence Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) strategy to optimize support of operations and represents a major accomplishment for the DND/CF. It allows the DND/CF to operate as a whole in decision making across DND/CF organizations and vastly improves the quality and efficiency of financial management information across the department. The successful harmonization of these business areas is the first of its kind in the Government of Canada, which is a testament to the innovative thinking and the dedication to excellence of the team that implemented it.
Nominated by Patricia Laviolette, Director General Financial Operations, Department of National Defence.
Department of National Defence
The Support to Operations Team demonstrated outstanding initiative and innovation in providing world class financial advice, costing and reporting on domestic and international operations undertaken by the Canadian Forces (CF). The Department of National Defence has developed advanced costing tools and processes to support very complex domestic and international military operations. The scale of these operations is significant—over the past year the incremental cost was over $1.8 billion with some 12,781 CF members being deployed. The financial review and challenge function ensures that requirements are clearly defined, assumptions that impact cost drivers are valid, risks are effectively managed, and the resource requirements are incremental based on efficient and effective operational planning and delivery.
The Support to Operations Team provides assurance to department and government senior officials that accurate and reliable financial information is available to support decision making for CF operations and support CFO attestation.
Nominated by Kevin Lindsey, ADM(Fin CS) and Chief Financial Officer, Department of National Defence.
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Mr. Doug Lloyd is nominated for the development and implementation of a financial management transformation effort over the past two years. He developed a number of innovative methods of collaboration and management to ensure that the government of Canada’s capacity in finance was advanced at the same time as the community was further developed; and implemented new business processes, common financial information and convergence onto the same functional technology platforms.
This financial management transformation includes over 250 members of the community from over 70 organizations working in concert and exchanging information in an effort to increase the level of expertise in the financial regime, and to support and advance accountability. The effort has moved Canada to even higher regard in the international community and new and innovative techniques in collaboration and transformation management have brought high credit to the community, the office of the comptroller general and to the country. These tools and techniques are now being taught at local universities.
Many other jurisdictions and countries have asked the Financial System Authority to explain how they approached and solved the problem, while maintaining and improving the organization’s accountability frameworks and addressing demographic pressures.
Nominated by Joseph Albert, Senior Director, Financial System Authority, Financial Management Sector, Office of the Comptroller General / Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
2010 Award Submission Summaries
Canada Revenue Agency
Project Portfolio Management Process
The Resource and Investment Management Committee Secretariat has shown initiative and innovation throughout 2009 as it has continued to implement, review, refine and improve the Agency’s project portfolio management process.
It has designed comprehensive reporting mechanisms to channel information from the project offices to senior management at regular intervals, and has led the integration of interested stakeholders (and their expertise) into the process. It has created tracking and feedback mechanisms to better monitor current projects, and to improve future ones. It has implemented the first 10-year Strategic Investment Plan, and begun to refine the process for the upcoming year. This has improved management of the Agency’s investments by ensuring alignment with both government and Agency priorities and capacity.
In each of these cases, financial management of major projects for the Agency has been enhanced, providing better information, better decision-making ability, and better oversight capacity to senior management.
Nominated by Filipe Dinis, A/Agency Comptroller and Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency.
Industry Canada
Functional Accountability Model
The Financial Operations and Systems (FOS) Branch of Industry Canada is an exemplary team and recognized leader in the financial community within the Government of Canada.
Through focused efforts this group was successful in the development and implementation of a Functional Accountability Model across Industry Canada. This model provides a solid framework for solid financial management practices and guidance as reflected in results of Audit Reports, Public Accounts, Financial Statements and Internal Reporting.
The Office of the Auditor General will be undertaking a controls-based audit of Industry Canada’s departmental financial statements. This can only be achieved because of the strong controls in place within the department.
Nominated by Kelly Gillis, Chief Financial Officer, Comptrollership and Administration Sector, Industry Canada.
2009 Award Submission Summaries
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Through innovative thinking, creative problem solving and significant personal commitment, the Revenue Spending Authority (RSA) Project Team effectively and efficiently implemented RSA at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
The Canadian nuclear industry is experiencing substantial growth in all areas, creating a significant increase in the regulatory workload at CNSC. To meet this challenge, the RSA project team has provided CNSC with a flexible, timely and sustainable funding process that will enable it to manage current and future workload pressures. As fee paying licensees represent 70 per cent of all CNSC activities, this is a critical success factor for the Commission.
The CNSC is one of the first government regulatory bodies to implement RSA on this scale, and the success of this team's work is being closely monitored by other agencies including the National Energy Board and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The team’s innovative risk-informed approach and lessons learned will be of significant value to other agencies about to embark on their own RSA projects.
As the CNSC did not have sufficient human resources available for a dedicated RSA project team, project team members were required to continue delivering their primary duties while committing themselves to this complex, time intensive, and mission sensitive project on-time and within budget.
Faced with minimal resources and a complex task, the project team overcame both technical and organizational challenges to provide a strong control, monitoring and reporting framework that is critical to CNSC's successful transition to full RSA.
Nominated by André Joannette, Director General Finance Administration Directorate, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Canada Revenue Agency
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers the tax collection system on behalf of federal, provincial, territorial and first nation governments across Canada. It also administers benefit and other programs that provide economic and social benefits to Canadians. In a typical year, the CRA collects close to $350 billion in revenue for federal, provincial and territorial governments. The CRA operates nationwide, with a budget of some $4 billion annually and 44,000 employees, in more than 50 offices and centres.
The CRA, under James Ralston’s direction, implemented its revised Performance Activity Architecture (PAA), including a complete Performance Measurement Framework (PMF). This framework, as prescribed by the Treasury Board’s Management, Resources and Results Structure (MRRS) Policy, is now fully integrated within CRA program management. To meet James’ vision of better performance management, the CRA aligned its budgets and expenditures with the PAA structure, which is fully costed at all levels. The CRA has also established a comprehensive network of performance indicators and efficiency targets for all programs and services, modeled on the MRRS and using the PAA to define the areas of focus. Consequently, the CRA has improved its budget allocation and priority-setting processes, and the ways it objectively measures and assesses performance.
The CRA also established a leading-edge quarterly reporting system to provide senior management with performance information. Program heads are expected to provide explanations of any variances in performance against the targets. This system allows trends and areas of concern to be identified early.
The CRA is a leader in performance measurement, sharing best practices with other departments and foreign governments. James’ leadership in this area is underscored by the fact that the CRA is the only large organization within government to have received a ‘strong’ rating from the Treasury Board Secretariat for its work on the Performance Measurement Framework.
Nominated by David Hum, Director, Costing and Performance Reporting Division, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency.
Department of Finance
The Department of Finance is responsible, along with the Canada Revenue Agency, for administering the Tax Collection Agreements. The federal government is therefore responsible for administering provincial and territorial taxes for almost all provinces and territories. For the 2008-09 fiscal year, these amounts totalled $57.7 billion.
In an effort to enhance the financial management of these amounts, Marc-Olivier Charbonneau has programmed a new Microsoft Excel tool (Automated Payment Requisition Program (the Program)) that provides an impressive number of functionalities: the Program generates over 300 summary tables, and more than 208,000 checks are performed (as conditional formatting and formulae) each time that a new transaction is recorded.
These amounts are reconciled to those of Financial Services to ensure that the amounts appearing in SAP are identical to those in the Program, and reconciled summary tables are sent to the provinces and territories every month. Finally, these same reports are used by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and by the auditors general in the various provinces and territories, as well as by the internal audit departments of a number of provincial Finance ministries.
Nominated by Mireille Éthier, Senior manager, Department of Finance.
Public Service Commission
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has been offering assessment services on a cost recovery basis for many years, but the importance of these revenues grew significantly to $14 million for FY 2008-2009. The move to increased cost recovery not only necessitated improved processes and tools, but it was also a major cultural shift. The PSC did not have an integrated tool to obtain critical management information, to establish revenue forecasts and to bill clients. There were over 90 independent spreadsheets across Canada to manage cost recovery at the PSC and over five different billing processes for each different product/service. The lack of an integrated system and process in place would have prevented the PSC from meeting its financial management requirements. There was also a critical time constraint to develop an application and implement it for the start of the fiscal year, April 1, 2008.
The group contributed to modernization of financial management and comptrollership by re-engineering and standardizing the process across Canada and providing the PSC with a Revenue Management System in a short time and in a very cost effective manner. The new system and process improve the quality of information available to managers for decision making and forecasting; allows for cost reduction due to both operational efficiency and effectiveness in the billing process such as an interface with its core financial system; and offers the basis for sound internal controls in the revenue cycle at the PSC.
Nominated by Richard Charlebois, Vice-President, Corporate Management Branch, CFO, Public Service Commission.
Service Canada
Service Canada is part of the largest and most complex institution in the country delivering benefits, services and information to Canadians across multiple channels – telephone, Internet, mail or in-person. In one relative year, over $70 billion in benefits are paid; 125 million payments made; 51.1 million phone calls received in call centres; 26.6 million visits to the Internet; and 9.2 million visitors to a Service Canada Centre.
Faced with considerable challenges, such as organizational behaviors, change management, departmental re-organization and rebuilding base budgets while maintaining service excellence, this team effectively created partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to understand and create awareness of costs. With shrewd enterprise wide resource planning, their dedication culminated in an approved Service Canada multi-year operational planning process. This work serves the organization as a basis to further understanding its costs and to improve on its budget allocation process. This process established firm linkage to the integrated business and human resources planning enabling the building of an effective and cohesive organization, placing Service Canada on a solid foundation to better respond to Canadian Government initiatives.
Briefly, the team:
- actively engaged stakeholders to facilitate the building of a systematic and structured approach to understand total cost of the organization aimed to provide a holistic framework to control, reduce or eliminate costs;
- developed and integrated ten business line resource models facilitating best informed multi-year operational planning and resource allocation linked to integrated business and human resource planning; and
- established 11 Centrally Managed Cost Pools, an approach to process management that has led to standardization, service improvement and cost efficiencies.
Their contribution has placed the department in a better position to predict cost impact, not only for expanding shared services, but for significant environmental and economic changes affecting service delivery excellence.
Nominated by Tony Matson, Director, Centre of Excellence for Costing, Service Canada.