Our 2005-2006 Results

Our Program Activities

Corporate Services (PA7)

We deliver high quality tax and benefit programs. Our Corporate Services program activity supports the CRA in the areas of human resources, finance and administration, information technology, public affairs, agency management, corporate audit and program evaluation, and policy and intergovernmental affairs. These activities are interconnected and, by managing our corporate services in an integrated manner horizontally across the CRA, we ensure that our tax and benefits program activities have the guidance, infrastructure, and resources needed for successful delivery.

The Management Accountability Framework (MAF) assessment conducted by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) is a good indicator of our performance in managing the functions that make up our Corporate Services program activity. The 2005 MAF assessment commended us in a number of areas and noted that we had made progress in areas raised in the previous year's assessment. While MAF results were generally positive, there were three principal areas where attention is needed. TBS and the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada did not rate us in areas where our Board of Management has legislated oversight responsibilities.

Strategic Priorities

As noted on , our four priorities for the planning period—tax integrity; service to Canadians; business sustainability; and trust and integrity—guided our planning and performance across the CRA in 2005-2006. While these priorities were undertaken to some degree in all of our program activities, Corporate Services focused on the two with the greatest relevance to internal services: business sustainability and trust and integrity.

Business Sustainability

To ensure the capacity to continue to deliver tax and benefit programs at the level of service expected by taxpayers and benefit recipients, we advanced our management regime on a number of fronts.

• We continued our focus on resource review and reallocation, which involved a mix of expenditure reviews for major initiatives, identification of program efficiencies, and re-allocation of funding to higher CRA priorities.
• We aligned our Information Technology Asset Management Plan with our global Asset Management Plan so that the continued development of our corporate services infrastructure is integrated, ensuring that our technology-dependent programs have the equipment they need.
• We strengthened financial planning and increased the accuracy of projections by reinforcing management commitment to good stewardship of resources.
• We continued to enhance our staffing program to contribute to employee development and, further respond to the business needs of the Agency.

Sustained successful delivery of our programs depends on the approximately 44,000 people who work for the CRA from coast to coast to coast. In 2005-2006, Corporate Services ensured that we were able to hire people more efficiently, to ensure that they had—and will continue to have—the competencies they need, and to equip them with the tools and training required for their positions.

Our employees depend on our information technology systems. Computers, software, and networks are the tools needed by our employees. We conducted work on several levels to ensure that these tools are reliable and available. We introduced the next generation Enterprise IT architecture to improve interoperability and reduce development costs. The continued alignment of our IT Strategy with our business activities to provide state-of-the-art tools has enabled us to reap the full benefits of the knowledge economy. This year, we implemented major systems releases for our tax, benefits, appeals, and charities systems, including systems for the Canada Border Services Agency.

Through our Data Centre Recovery Project, we implemented recovery strategies for mainframe, network, and open systems infrastructures. We significantly advanced the building of our data warehouse, enabling improved organization, integration, and management of data.

In 2005-2006, recognizing that communication is the mortar that holds our horizontal foundation together, we implemented a new internal communications policy that emphasizes the role of individual managers in delivering corporate messages to employees. To guide our business decisions, we also implemented a new Integrated Risk Management Policy—under the direction of the newly-created Chief Risk Officer—to ensure a consistent, CRA-wide approach to successful risk management.

We recognize that effective and efficient delivery of our program activities depends on effective and efficient internal services. The results for our tax services and benefit programs reflect the effectiveness of our information technology systems, which met or exceeded availability targets so that our employees were able to provide uninterrupted service to Canadians.

Trust and Integrity

As noted on , this priority is of special importance to the CRA because of the extent of our public dealings. In 2005-2006, we continued to work to merit Canadians' trust, as demonstrated by the A grade for “ideal compliance” under the Access to Information and Privacy Acts, responding within legislated timeframes, respectively, 95.85% and 95.5% of the time.

As well, we maintained trust and integrity by keeping Canadians' personal information secure. In 2005-2006, we met the challenges of safeguarding information from increased accidental or deliberate system security threats. We also acquired network intrusion defence systems for our electronic network and encryption software to protect the data in our computers. We also maintained high standards in the protection of information, facilities, and systems through compliance and monitoring reviews that ensured an adequate policy framework and identified and implemented strategies to protect taxpayer and personal information. We implemented a Security Training and Awareness Strategy for all employees.

Stewardship of taxpayers' resources remained a high priority in 2005-2006. We continued to improve our corporate administrative systems and controls. This year, the production of our Administered Activities financial statements ( ) was improved with the automation of previously manual year-end reporting processes. Our resource management systems were enhanced to enable us to report according to the new Program Activity Architecture, which improves the integration of financial and non-financial reporting information for the Management, Resources and Results Structure process. Refinements to project costing and more robust project review and monitoring process for major strategic investment projects helped us better manage our resources.

Stewardship also means ensuring that tax dollars are spent effectively. In 2005-2006, we conducted internal audits and program evaluations that provided objective information, advice, and assurance on the soundness of our activities. We reported the results of the audits and evaluations to the Board of Management's Audit Committee.

Unaudited

Date modified:

2006-11-23