Evaluating Our Overall Performance

We Have One Expected Outcome

Corporate Management and Direction supports the achievement of the CCRA's two strategic outcomes—compliance and innovation—through the results it achieves against the following expected outcome: Performance of our business services and operations is maximized through modern and innovative management approaches.

An effective governance and management regime positions the CCRA to achieve substantial gains in client-focused service delivery in line with our unique agenda. To achieve these gains, we must communicate the strategic agenda, empower our employees to deliver it, and be transparent about our results. As a public organization, we also owe it to Canadians to ensure that our financial management information systems and practices are sound and respect their rights. Together, these elements provide the platform for maximizing the performance potential of our business lines.

Now that we are an agency, Canadians expect us to realize greater advances than we could as a department. This means leveraging our newfound flexibility as a separate employer and custodian of our financial management policies, among others, to develop customized administration in support of better, faster, more affordable service to Canadians. We continue to put in place the tools and systems we need to achieve significant changes: human resources reform and renewal, administrative reform and renewal, and transparent management for results. At the same time, we are striving for further enhancements in our core programs, where appropriate. Our platform for change is found in the CCRA's Summary of the Corporate Business Plan.

Performance Context

Innovation is at the heart of the CCRA's change agenda and is being pursued through four change objectives. The number-one objective, business transformation, is about providing the best possible service to Canadians. The three other objectives are the enablers—human resources reform and renewal, administrative reform and renewal, and transparent management for results—designed to strengthen our internal capacities to deliver on this service commitment.

As we work towards achieving the CCRA's innovation agenda in this business line, our challenge in Corporate Management and Direction is to support the design, implementation, communication, and monitoring of the enabling objectives, while also ensuring that the CCRA delivers its ongoing programs effectively through its business lines.

We also need to be able to react quickly and adapt our plans when faced with unexpected circumstances, such as ensuring the safety of our employees following the events of September 11.

After two and half years as an agency, we have put in place the key enablers to facilitate the achievement of the CCRA's overall innovation objectives. Changes to date have focused on operationalizing the unique governance and accountability structures that make the CCRA much more answerable for the results it achieves. We have also developed a new management policy framework and implemented new agency flexibilities in the following areas: human resources (for example, staffing, staffing recourse, classification, and bargaining), real property (for example, leasing and facility management), financial management, and administrative policies. These drive our performance efforts in Corporate Management and Direction and support the Government's broader agenda for change.

Similarly, we are continuing our efforts to reform our measurement culture in the Agency—a significant challenge for an organization of this size and complexity.

While much has been accomplished to date, more is needed to get the job fully done. In particular, Corporate Management and Direction will continue to play a pivotal role in the ongoing maturing of the Agency's governance and strategic oversight processes to ensure that together all business lines provide the best possible service to Canadians. Through the successful implementation of the CCRA's innovation agenda, we expect to be well positioned to support the parliamentary review of the Canada Customs and Revenue Act that could happen as early as 2004.

High-level Success Criteria

Below, we assess our performance against our expected outcome using the following high-level success criteria:

• our strategic direction and agency oversight lead to continued success in meeting our strategic outcomes in terms of compliance and innovation;

• we put in place a modern management infrastructure that helps us balance efficient use of the CCRA's resources and successful program delivery;

• we incorporate best practices from other jurisdictions, and share the lessons we learn in innovating our systems and practices with the rest of the Public Service of Canada and other public- and private-sector organizations; and

• through our openness in reporting on our results, we have a positive impact on public confidence and Parliament's trust in our ability to be an effective service provider for all levels of government.

Later, in the sections from to ,we discuss in detail our performance against each of our eight anticipated results, using more detailed success criteria that are built on the high-level criteria. The “Corporate Management and Direction Performance Report Card” shown in Exhibit 93 provides a two-page summary of our performance.

Conclusions Against Expected Outcome

On balance, we believe that we generally met expectations and are on track toward meeting our expected outcome in the context of the new flexibilities of our agency status. The year was marked by significant achievements, but also by some setbacks.

We have successfully put in place our governance and senior management committee structure. However, we need to continue to improve both the quality of information that is used and how it is integrated for decision-making. The achievements in our human resources reform and renewal agenda were especially noteworthy—for example, the creation of our Management Group (MG), comprising some 3,200 managers. This will strengthen the coherent management presence at the front line, which will drive the CCRA's business transformation initiatives. The creation of the MG group has already attracted interest from outside the agency as an example of human resources (HR) innovation. We also achieved some advances in our administrative reform and renewal agenda. Building on our transparent management for results agenda, our Corporate Business Plan (including its Summary) now reflects both our core operations and our innovation agenda, and establishes the link to our annual reporting framework. The tabling of our first Annual Report was a further illustration of our commitment to reporting transparently on our program results.

However, the CCRA's reputation for sound financial management was seriously damaged by the discovery of an error in the application of the capital gains refunds earned by mutual fund trusts (the T3 issue). This error resulted in overpayments to a number of provinces totalling about $3.4 billion for the 1993 to 1999 tax years. We recognized the gravity of the error, and dealt with it transparently with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, the Department of Finance, and the affected provincial partners to respond to this issue and its root cause. We also did not make as much progress as we expected in implementing our Balanced Scorecard project for performance measurement, thereby delaying the availability of consistent, high-quality information to facilitate results-based management.

Corporate Management and Direction (CMD) carries out a number of other core activities that are not part of the discussion of the eight CMD Anticipated Results, briefly described here:

• Internal Security - The events of September 11 and emergency situations like the anthrax threat had a significant impact on CMD. Our security organization and infrastructure—from people, to processes, to technology—responded well. Special security measures were developed and implemented to ensure continued protection of CCRA employees, information and assets. The Clerk of the Privy Council Office commended our achievements in this area.

• Real Property - The CCRA holds the second largest real property portfolio in the Public Service and is responding to growing demands for office space. During 2001-2002, we implemented a Long-Term Facilities Investment Plan (LTFIP), and the BoM approved six related investment strategies. Key projects include the construction of five new border crossing facilities, a number of airport refits, and the acquisition of new leased facilities.

• Public Affairs - The Public Affairs Branch (PAB) was a key player in the post September 11 events. It also developed and implemented our transparent approach to communicating in regards to the Mutual Trust Fund (T3) issue. The PAB launched a successful television and Internet information campaign to assist taxpayers during the 2001 tax-filing season. In December 2001, the AMC approved a Strategic Communications Framework that fosters an integrated and synergistic Agency-wide approach to communications.

• Information Management - The CCRA has demonstrated leadership in the information management field by developing an Information Management policy. This policy is a key driver for the management of about 50 million pieces of correspondence a year, 20 million T1 returns, and 10 million T2 returns, as well as tens of thousands of unique titles, document copies, and authority records. The IM policy establishes the parameters for a responsive, accountable and risk-based IM capability that is aligned with the Government On-Line context.

Exhibit 93: Corporate Management and Direction Performance Report Card

Corporate Management and Direction Report Card Expected outcome – Performance of our business services and operations is maximized through modern and innovative management approaches
	Anticipated results	This year's rating	Last year's ratings	Variance		Actual results as demonstrated by	Page
Innovating for the Future (Year 2 of 5)	1. Effective governance regime that provides management oversight and leadership					Overall, we are on track for the implementation of a mature and fully integrated governance regime:
						Our sucesses include appropriate accountability through our Corporate Business Plan and an innovative first Annual Report, backed by enhanced internal audit and accountability contracts with all managers.
						Oversight by the Board of Management is disciplined and demanding, bringing the interests of Canadians and business-like approaches into our management processes.
						We must better integrate financial and non-financial information into our governance practices.
	2. A cultural shift under way and growing that puts decision-making in the hands of managers					On balance, we believe that we met or exceeded our expectation in shifting the corporate culture towards values and empowerment:
						Decision-making was placed more squarely in the hands of managers, who will power the cultural change.
						Results-based management expectations are now embedded in performance agreements with almost 600 executives and over 3,000 MG group members.
						We have introduced greater delegation of authorities in the areas of human resources, real property, financial management, and administrative policies, but more training is needed in these areas.
	3. Leadership in human resources (HR) reform that is in tune with business objectives					During the first two years of our five-year human resources reform and renewal plan, we achieved some breakthroughs and met all the other key project expectations. We anticipate completing the plan on time:
						A breakthrough was achieved in the creation of a MG group of about 3,200 managers previously managed through 20 classification standards. Last year we completed negotiations of unique performance rewards for people management with the Public Service Alliance of Canada and with one bargaining unit of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. All negotiations with PIPSC were concluded as of July 2002.
						Commitments in the Corporate Business Plan flow through executive cadre performance agreements to more than 70% (28,749) of permanent employees' performance expectations.
						25,000 individual learning plans were developed by employees, exceeding expectations.
						Piloted the implementation of pre-qualified pools of candidates within the competency -based resourcing system.
						Many employees are facing delays in receiving acting or overtime payments.
						Some HR data in the Corporate Administrative System (CAS) is still unreliable, reducing the benefits of CAS.
	4. Modern comptrollership regime that fosters management and service excellence					We progressed on all aspects of the transparent results-based management approach, but have had some performance shortfalls. Efforts are not sufficiently integrated to provide a holistic approach:
						An Agency Comptroller, at the Deputy Assistant Commissioner level, was appointed, and the Modern Comptrollership Office was established.
						The Balanced Scorecard will improve reporting, but is behind schedule.
						Insufficient priority given to investment in modernizing some of our financial systems and practices.
Managing the Compliance Continuum	5. Confidentiality of client information is protected 6. Canadians' desire for transparency in public administration is addressed					We have had significant improvement since last year in our compliance with Privacy Act legislated time frames, from 89.5% to 98.4%.
						We have had significant improvement since last year in our compliance with Access to Information Act legislated time frames, from 84.5% to 93.7%. This improved our grade given by the Information Commissioner from “C” to “B”
						Our business plan and annual report, and our open response to the T3 issue, demonstrate our commitment to transparency
	7. Sound financial and treasury management					Error in allocation of capital gains refunds earned by mutual fund trusts (T3). Corrective measures taken.
						We exercised prudent fiscal management by staying within our budget, identifying about $50 million of expected savings due to administrative reform and renewal, and enhancing our asset management and investment plan.
						We exercised sound cash management of $239 billion of receipts, meeting the 24-hour standard for deposits 98% of the time (up from 97% last year). A monitoring management system is still needed to cover the $62 billion in customs duties, GST/HST, and excise duties and tax receipts, and legacy costing systems limit our financial management capability.
						Financial Information Strategy (FIS) Phase II was initiated.
						Continued timely implementation of the Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy.
	8. Operational excellence and solutions leadership in information technology					We have provided high levels of operational performance of approximately 200 critical applications supporting the operational business lines, including during the period following September 11. IT support for modern comptrollership, financial management, and HR are discussed above in AR 3, 4 and 7.
						We provided solutions leadership through new business applications for the Tax Services and Customs business lines, for example the Tax on Income and Intelligence Management Systems.

Contributions of Others

The achievement of our expected outcome is not solely attributable to the CCRA. Ongoing support from the Government is essential to the successful implementation of our change agenda.

We have partnered with common service providers such as Public Works and Government Services Canada for the management of our pay system, accommodations, and contracts.

Corporate Management and Direction further benefits from independent reviews conducted by outside organizations, including the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Treasury Board (Resource and Management Review), Privacy Commissioner, Information Commissioner, and Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.

The CCRA aims to be an effective, knowledge-based organization. Our participation in other national and international organizations is to the mutual benefit of the CCRA and those organizations. For example, in 2001-2002, we co-ordinated 57 international technical assistance projects and hosted a major international e-commerce conference on behalf of five international organizations: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Inter-American Centre of Tax Administrators (CIAT), Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA), Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA), and le Centre de rencontres et d'études des dirigeants des administrations fiscales (CRÉDAF).

The CCRA is uniquely served and supported by its Legal Services personnel. They provide corporate legal counsel and advisory services. Under a long-standing arrangement with the federal Department of Justice, Legal Services are managed by the CCRA Chief Counsel, who acts as the Commissioner's delegate for the legal aspects of CCRA operations and policies on behalf of the Deputy Attorney General of Canada.

Logic Model

We have prepared a Corporate Management and Direction logic model (see ), which offers a roadmap showing the links between our inputs, activities, and outputs that are essential to achieving our eight anticipated results in support of our one expected outcome. It also shows how these fit into the Agency's overall strategic outcomes. This logic model is the foundation of the CCRA overall performance report card which summarizes our performance against each anticipated result.

Date modified:

2002-11-07