Corporate Management and Direction

Expected Outcome

Performance Summary – We have mostly met our Anticipated Result, as demonstrated by the following performance against expectations:

• implemented modern comptrollership initiatives such as Financial Information Strategy (FIS) for accrual accounting, E-Procurement, and development of Integrated Risk Management
• made progress towards improved decision-making through the In-Year Performance Monitoring Report and activity-based costing pilots
• however, further progress is needed to fully stabilize CCRA's processes for accrual accounting, and to make enhancements to the reliability of its financial systems

The CCRA has continued to pursue its Transparent Management for Results change initiative, the objectives of which parallel those of the government-wide Modern Comptrollership initiative.

To articulate the CCRA's long-range vision for modern comptrollership and guide future efforts to build capacity, a CCRA high-level Comptrollership Business Model was developed that depicts the inputs, activities, and processes required to realize the outcomes that, ideally, are attained by an organization exercising “first-rate” comptrollership.

We have made significant progress towards implementing the Modern Comptrollership regime and practices:

• Strategic leadership through our Corporate Business Plan;
• Continued integration of financial and non-financial performance information in our Balanced Scorecard (BSC) via In-Year reporting;
• Better operating and financial information through the Revenue Ledger (RL) and Corporate Administrative System;
• Service improvement focus through our enhanced
  citizen-focused service standards;
• Risk management process that is maturing at the corporate level;
• Performance Management that is entrenched in our Annual Report and our EX/SM Accountability Agreements;
• Launching of a Modern Comptrollership Capacity Check;
• Establishment of a Comptrollership Committee; and
• Development of a Modern Comptrollership Communications, Training and Learning Strategies.

We have contained our immediate operations-related financial pressures and, by so doing, have maintained our allocations for future strategic investments and key asset replacements. This is facilitated by the implementation of our renewed Budget and Expenditure management framework.

This year, a more structured quarterly budgeting and expenditure reporting system was developed. It will be implemented in 2003-2004. This budget and expenditure alignment will improve our managerial control at Headquarters and in the Regions. The CCRA completed four pilot projects that successfully demonstrated the benefits of activity-based costing for improved strategic cost management. Despite this progress, costing systems need further improvement to support the CCRA's needs.

Our Administration Reform and Renewal (ARR) initiative is winding down in 2003-2004 with about 70% of the initiatives completed and responsibility for ongoing monitoring transferred to core functions. The CCRA's ARR initiative has identified savings opportunities. The estimated savings are $8.4 million in 2002-2003, and total cumulative savings will be approximately $53 million over the next four years.

With the streamlining of the CCRA's travel policy practices, processes, and administration, the Agency expects to achieve significant savings in travel expenses in coming years.

Our first In-Year Performance Monitoring Report (Balanced Scorecard) was presented in February 2003. It provided earlier analysis of Agency performance. Although implementation of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) automated system continued to lag behind its target, the first release of an automated BSC System was provided to selected corporate planners and analysts in February 2003.

Our financial management improvement program has been driven by the Government's Financial Information Strategy (FIS). We have implemented accrual accounting of tax revenues this year with the CCRA's financial statements reflecting full accrual accounting for the first time in 2002-2003.

The strengthening of our financial, monitoring, and reporting systems provided managers with better financial information for decision-making purposes. However, improvements are still needed to meet internal and external stakeholders' needs.

This year, the CCRA collected more than $300 billion, representing average daily collections of about $1.2 billion. To improve our CCRA cash receipt management system, an enhanced system was developed and implemented especially for Customs' receipts to assist in monitoring against the 24-hour deposit standard.

To address the provincial overpayment problem, CCRA's corporate audit and evaluation function carried out work in conjunction with the OAG that reaffirmed the completeness and accuracy of the account structure for capturing tax amounts owing to the provinces and territories. Ongoing joint audits for financial systems controls by this function and the OAG are aimed at providing financial statement assurance based on a “controls-reliant” approach.

The CCRA submits an Asset Management Plan for reporting to TBS on the Implementation of the Resource and Management Review. The Asset Management Plan discloses the results of its life-cycle management process for moveable goods, i.e., cars, computers, etc. The CCRA does not as yet have a single, integrated inventory of all Agency equipment (assets that are not capitalized for financial statement purposes); however, Agency-wide inventories do exist for all asset classes which are capitalized and reported in its financial statements.

The CCRA made good progress on its 2001-2004 Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy. The focus has been on building SD infrastructure to facilitate better feedback through an automated system and strengthening environmental management. More SD reporting can be seen on our Web site.

Progress was made in establishing a new strategic CCRA/PWGSC business partnership which will enhance the stewardship of the CCRA's physical assets.

Date modified:

2003-10-29