Management of Resources
Expectation (a): Project Management – Investment decisions are based on program priorities and affordability, and possible future liabilities are identified.
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- Does the Agency have an appropriate project management framework in place that includes policies, processes, and an explicit accountability framework that support effective decision-making oversight, monitoring and review?
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- The Board approved the Project Management Policy that applies to all Agency projects.
- Resource and Investment Management Committee (RIMC) was created with a mandate to establish budget priorities and requirements according to the Corporate Business Plan, oversee the allocation and control of Agency financial resources, and oversee the management and progress of major investment projects.
- RIMC Secretariat facilitates awareness and understanding of the project approval process, accountability framework, and documentation requirements.
- RIMC worked with all branches throughout 2007-2008 to fulfil the corporate challenge function in assessing project proposals, approval-in-principle granted to two proposed projects, denied to a third.
- RIMC Secretariat established RIMC Mandate, Administrative Procedures, and Document Guidelines, which are part of the Resource Management volume of the Finance and Administration Manual, including the approval and monitoring processes for major investment projects in accordance with the Canada Revenue Agency Project Management Policy.
- RIMC Secretariat has developed a reporting framework for the Board, the Capital Investment Project Portfolio dashboard, that provides for quarterly reporting on project delivery performance (schedule, cost and scope on three capital investment projects – Integrated Revenue Collections, Individual Identification Renewal, and Compliance Systems Redesign) – initial report on the first quarter 2007-2008 presented September 2007.
- Major strategic investment projects that have been reviewed by RIMC and received approval from AMC, and have lifecycle development costs that are expected to exceed the threshold of $20 million will be referred toBoard of Mangement for review and approval of the governance structure, the monitoring framework and the planned expenditures.
- RIMC Secretariat has developed a policy paper for RIMC to consider whether the Agency should formalize a priority setting mechanism for investment selection, improve the granularity of the estimating process, and continually re-assess each investment's value to the Agency in light of program priorities and budgetary considerations.
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- Project Management Policy
- RIMC/Agency Management Committee reports, minutes, Board of Management Records of Discussion
- Capital Investment Project Portfolio Dashboard
- RIMC Mandate, Administrative Procedures and Documentation Guidelines
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Board's Assessment and Related Comments
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- Oversee the refinement of the Agency's project management costing and reporting practices
- Monitor major projects including the implementation of the human resources component of the Corporate Tax Administration for Ontario
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Opportunity for improvement
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Expectation (b): Asset Management – Real property strategy to address current and future accommodation needs; methodology for tracking and divesting moveable asset with individual value of more than $10K.
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- Is appropriate long-term capital planning and long-term investment planning in place?
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- A Three-year Asset Management Plan has been developed that identifies Information Technology planned expenditures for the current and upcoming two fiscal periods.
- The Asset Management Plan Review Committee, comprising cost centre managers and other key stakeholders, meets monthly to oversee Information Technology Branch's central budget plans.
- The Agency's Five-year Fleet Capital Replacement plan was updated in November 2005, a strategy for acquiring vehicles was completed, and the plan was adhered to throughout 2006-2007.
- A lifecycle management approach is used for materiel handling and mail equipment.
- Nationally, the Long Term Accommodation Investment Plan (LTAIP) sets out the strategic direction for the planning and management of Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) accommodation portfolio and national five-year investment plan.
- Regional Accommodation Plans provide key input to the LTAIP on operational influences on real property services.
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- Three-year asset management plan
- LTAIP
- Regional Accommodation Plans
- Fleet plans
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- Is there an appropriate real property management framework in place for leasees?
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- Since 2000-2001 the real property function has operated under a Real Property Management Framework that sets out a governance structure and investment-planning process.
- Resource and Investment Management Committee acknowledged that the Real Property Management Framework is consistent with the principles set out in the Agency's Project Management Policy.
- The Real Property Strategic Investment Board provides accountability and audit trail for real property investment.
- Management of the real property program is reported annually to the Finance and Administration Branch planning processes.
- CRA and Public Works and Government Services (PWGSC) operate under a Real Property Services Agreement, approved in 2007, which ensures continuity of PWGSC expertise and CRA's ability to exercise its legislated authority.
- CRA uses the PWGSC Occupancy Accommodation System Report to ensure that the accommodation costs and space usage are controlled and respect CRA standards, and that the national inventory is complete and accurate.
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- Real Property Management Framework
- LTAIP
- Real Property Services Agreement with PWGSC
- Internal audits and evaluations
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- Is there an appropriate materiel management framework in place?
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- As, indicated in Corporate Administrative System (CAS) Financial Audit Report, the Assistant Commissioner is responsible for all aspect of materiel management.
- Examples of technologies applied in 2006-2007 to enhance warehousing practices include “Carousel Technologies” in the Eastern Distribution Centre, and implementation of CAS controls such as Materiel Requirements Planning and Inventory Management. Work also began to implement the Ascent Shipping System to ensure the most cost-effective service provider and automatic update of CAS information .
- Methodology for tracking and divesting moveable assets over $10 K implemented in 2006-2007.
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- Life-cycle management
- Materiel management technologies
- Internal Audit Reports
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Board's Assessment and Related Comments
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Opportunity for improvement
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Expectation (c): A contracting policy in place that meets the Board's legal requirements and ensures that day to day operations respect the provisions of the policy.
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- Is Agency oversight of procurement and contracting effective in ensuring the transparency and integrity of those functions?
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- Policies and procedures that ensure procurement and contracting are in accordance with trade agreements, are compliant with delegation of authorities, are reviewed on an ongoing basis, and are included in the Materiel Management volume of the Finance & Administration Manual.
- Information Technology (IT) Procurement Strategy Committee, an Assistant Commissioner level committee, meets regularly to review IT-related contracts over $1M.
- Finance and Administration Branch Management Committee, chaired by the Agency's Chief Financial Officer, meets regularly to review non-IT related contracts over $1M.
- Agency Management Committee (AMC) receives periodic reports on contracting and are briefed on all contracts estimated at over $1M.
- Follow-Up Audit of Canada Revenue Agency Contracting Processes (November 2006) concluded that the overall progress made towards the implementation of the four point action plan, developed from the original audit (September 2004), was satisfactory.
- As a result, capacity in the Agency to manage the contracting process has been enhanced, delegated authorities are no longer decentralized, and communications to contracting officers and budget managers to support them in carrying out their duties has improved.
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- Procurement policy framework
- Internal audits and evaluation
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- Are the Agency's end to end procurement processes cost-effective?
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- E-procurement and acquisition card transactions represent 89% of total business transaction volume.
- In accordance with Treasury Board Secretariat estimates, costs associated with supporting these types of transactions is only 8% of the cost of using traditional procurement contracts.
- Contracts/other arrangements (i.e., non e-procurement and non acquisition card), totalling $436M, represents 92.4% of total business dollar volume, demonstrating Agency focus of procurement expertise and resources on high-value, high-risk transactions.
- Fifty-nine active Strategic Arrangements are currently in place and represent 17% of total business transaction volume.
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- Use of e-procurement, acquisition cards, contracts and other arrangements
- Strategic arrangements
- Internal audits and evaluations
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Board's Assessment and Related Comments
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Opportunity for improvement
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Expectation (d): The Board must assure itself that the Agency has and follows the appropriate control framework for the management of Information Technology.
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- Are we managing information technology risks well? Are adequate business continuity plans in place to mitigate the effects of a processing interruption?
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- Following a rigorous review and evaluation, a number of internal and external risks to the IT Branch have been identified.
- Risk mitigation plans are currently under development and quarterly reviews occur at the Branch Executive Committee to effectively manage these risks. Of interest, are two key risk management initiatives, namely:
- Data Centre; and
- IT Responsiveness and Sustainability.
- Business continuity plans were exercised and improved where required as a result of the March 2007 outage.
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- Corporate Risk Inventory (CRI)
- CRA IT Strategy
- IT Service availability (Quarterly Report)
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- How does the Agency ensure that IT investments are managed to ensure value?
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- Resource Investment Management Committee (RIMC) – IT multi-year investments/business cases are presented to RIMC to assist in sound decision making in the context of the Strategic Investment Plan.
- IT Branch Priorities Committee reviews IT investments and establishes priorities within the IT Branch.
- Major Project Review Committee (MPRC):
- MPRC was established to provide a succinct project status report and to provide Senior Executive decision-making, guidance and recommendations for high profile projects and portfolios;
- Executive Team selects projects and portfolios to be presented at MPRC during a quarterly review and/or as required;
- MPRC decision-making authority includes the ability to examine, question, and provide recommendations on all aspects related to the project or portfolio being presented. This includes escalating or resolving issues impacting capabilities to deliver on time, within budget, and with agreed upon functionality to eliminate or reduce project risks; and
- Risk is reviewed from a joint IT and Business perspective through reporting against receipt of requirements, IT architecture solutions and deployment of resources.
- Architecture Steering Committee (ASC) oversees and guides the Agency's Architecture Steering Program to ensure compliance with strategic directions including:
- Review and identify the scope of the Architecture Program;
- Identify the linkages between Architecture activities;
- Define Architecture Program priorities;
- Review the Branch's Constituent Architecture project plans on a regular basis; and
- Provide approval of mitigation plans tabled during the escalation of architectural issues.
- Review and support direction of project steering committees, including the following activities:
- Business Intelligence Steering Committee;
- Computer-Assisted Software Engineering (CASE) Steering Committee;
- Corporate Information Management Steering Committee(CIMSC)/ Information Management Advisory Committee (IMAC); and
- Security Steering Committee.
- The ITB Quality Program is directed at continuous improvement and alignment of performance measures, project and risk management, development and maintenance practices, and quality controls in order to improve our ability to meet clients' needs.
- The Quality Program supports application development and maintenance with quality practices, processes, tools and templates. Current initiatives underway include:
- Improved maintenance release processes;
- Improved artifact review processe; and
- Improved Incident reporting and root cause analysis.
- Measures are designed to improve our ability to meet clients' needs in a cost effective, flexible and responsive manner.
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- RIMC (records of decision)
- IT Strategy
- MPRC minutes
- ASC (records of decision)
- Branch Forward Schedule for Change
- Solutions Application Catalogue
- Solutions Configuration Items
- Solutions Costing Model
- Solutions Measurement Program
- Solutions Sustainability Assessment
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- Is the level of corporate engagement in IT management (senior executive accountability, corporate and IT governance, IT planning) sufficient?
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- IT Branch is responsible for the CRA's IT Strategy; the management and operation of the network and computing infrastructure; and the development and maintenance of IT/IM systems to enable program delivery.
- IT Support community is responsible for providing end user support services as documented in the National IT Support Program.
- The Assistant Commissioner & Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Information Technology Branch reports directly to the Commissioner. The CIO provides clear and consistent direction, guidance and authority over information technology initiatives and activities throughout the Agency.
- The AC/CIO sits on many of the Agency governance committees. IT and Client bi-laterals are held through the year to ensure engagement from both business and IT.
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- Agency Management Committee
- Resource and Investment Management Committee
- Strategic Direction and Business development Committee
- Operations Committee
- IT Strategy is approved by AMC and the Board
- Board of Management Resources Committee
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- Consider for next year additional key questions that would assist in the assessment of this area of management
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Opportunity for improvement
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- Date modified:
- 2009-04-07
