Management Results

Overview

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) delivers high-quality tax, benefit, and related services on behalf of governments across Canada. In support of our two strategic themes, our human resources, information technology, and other horizontal management areas must be fully integrated to ensure that our tax and benefit services have the guidance, infrastructure, and resources needed for successful delivery.

Management oversight

As an agency, we employ a unique hybrid reporting structure. We are accountable to Parliament through our minister for administration and enforcement of legislation, but also to a Board of Management that is responsible for overseeing the organization and management of our resources, services, and personnel.

To ensure that we are effectively meeting our responsibilities for complete and total accountability, we use two complementary tools: the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) assessment conducted by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) and the Board of Management Oversight Framework (BoMOF) assessment conducted by our own Board of Management. Having two separate assessments facilitates a rigorous and evidence-based method of demonstrating the Board’s oversight of CRA management in areas that are not assessed by the TBS framework.

Our 2008-2009 MAF assessment was very positive. Since last year’s assessment, we have improved our ratings in four areas of management. However, our rating has declined in one area of management due to continued concerns related to certain aspects of access to information and privacy, which we are committed to addressing.

In 2008-2009, the Board undertook its second BoMOF assessment and the results were positive. The Board and CRA management will continue to evolve the BoMOF to be more robust, transparent, and quantifiable.

Summary of MAF and BoMOF Assessment Ratings-CRA Results

The positive results of these assessments provide Canadians with assurance that the CRA recognizes the importance of sound agency management and is actively engaged in pursuing management excellence. A full report card against the MAF and the BoMOF assessments can be found at the end of this section.

2008-2009 priority initiatives

Further strengthening our management infrastructure remains a key priority in support of the delivery of our programs. We are widely recognized as a highly efficient and robust organization that is entrusted to administer many critical tax and income redistribution policies. This requires that our resource base be applied optimally, aligning investments with the strategic direction and priorities of the organization. The following are key areas of management where we are making significant strategic enhancements.

Advancing horizontal management

Working collaboratively across organizational boundaries toward a common purpose of achieving excellence in tax and benefit administration is vital to our success. All strategic initiatives are led by senior levels of CRA management who ensure appropriate horizontal participation and are accountable for the commitments made. Detailed work plans for all initiatives were developed and analysed through corporate committees, allowing for discussion on interdependencies across initiatives as well as consensus on the expected outcomes.

This past year, in accordance with our Board of Management’s direction, we implemented a more robust framework for strategy formulation, which was used to develop our first enterprise-level strategy, the CRA Service Strategy – Achieving Excellence Through Service. Approved by the Board in December 2008, this strategy is now the model for horizontal strategy development in our organization.

Human resources capacity and capability

Effective people management was a key leadership priority at the CRA during 2008-2009. This past fiscal year, we developed and published our Agency Workforce Plan 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 (AWP), a second instalment of our integrated human resources and business planning document. The AWP is a key element of our planning strategy and has three distinct themes:

1. Knowledge transfer and succession planning

2. Management of employees’ careers and development and change management

3. Strategic recruitment and reduced time to staff

We are better able to align operational and human resource requirements to ensure that the right talent is available and able to contribute to business objectives.

1. Knowledge transfer and succession planning

Workforce planning is paramount in managing current operational requirements while preparing for future business needs. In addition to our EC succession planning activities, in March 2009 we further strengthened our human resources planning capacity by implementing the Non-EC Succession Planning Guidelines. These guidelines are aligned with our Competency-Based Human Resources Management (CBHRM) approach and reinforce the importance of succession planning activities in support of future business requirements.

2. Management of employees' careers and development and change management

The CRA has a strong performance management program that enables managers to optimize the performance and development of their employees by ensuring that individual and team objectives are aligned with our strategic outcomes. In 2008-2009, we completed our annual review of both the employee and manager performance management cycles to ensure consistency, quality, and fairness throughout the process. The results of the review showed increased integration of competencies into performance management which reinforces our CBHRM approach and contributes to talent management, both drivers of organizational success.

Establishing individual learning plans (ILPs) is an integral part of ensuring that employee learning needs are identified and supported. Through career discussions with their managers, employees identify learning needs related to current work and future career objectives. In 2008-2009, 94.5% had completed ILPs, exceeding our target of 90%.

We remain committed to continuous learning in order to maintain a highly skilled, capable workforce and topromote excellence in the workplace. In 2008-2009, our total investment spent on learning was approximately $170 million, investing an average of 11 days of training per employee and 10 days per manager.

3. Strategic recruitment and reduced time to staff

Attracting, developing, and retaining talent has remained a key priority. As such, important and fundamental steps towards advancing our CBHRM regime were taken in 2008-2009, including the continued use of mandatory pre-qualified processes (PQPs) and the launch of the Migration to End-State PQPs project. This initiative supports the recommendations outlined by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada as a result of the audit conducted in 2007-2008 on the CRA’s use of new human resources authorities and contributes to the evolution of more effective staffing and timely acquisition of talent.

Information technology responsiveness and sustainability

Considerable information technology (IT) assets and delivery capacity are under the stewardship of the CRA. The availability, recoverability, and security of our automated systems is critical to the delivery of our tax and benefit programs. Our technical environment grows increasingly complex each year and particular measures are required to identify and mitigate heightened security threats and to provide corresponding safeguards. In 2008-2009, we sustained our focus on ensuring our IT solutions were robust, secure, and reliable.

During the year, we maintained high levels of availability of our multiple national systems, while concurrently meeting the challenges faced in safeguarding our IT assets from accidental or deliberate security threats. In addition, we replaced six existing mainframe computers with four new ones that allow for the rapid expansion of computing capacity to meet our needs.

Among our key IT objectives is the ongoing development of effective technological solutions that support our core business priorities. In 2008-2009 we employed Business Rules Engine technology in our Integrated Revenue Collections (IRC) project to make the applications more flexible and allow for faster modifications at a later date.

Given that we have a very large Internet presence and we manage vast amounts of confidential taxpayer and benefit recipient data, we must strive to meet the highest standards in protecting this data. Over the past year, we further advanced our vulnerability assessment and management capabilities through improved reporting on the health of the security of our entire networked computing infrastructure. Notably, we reached a key milestone in 2008-2009 with our Network Services Enhancement Project by finalizing the technical requirement for updated switching technology. Enhancements such as these, coupled with implementation of our multi-year Managed Distributed Environment Program, addressed shortcomings in our computing environment.

In October 2008, we received two silver Government Technology Exhibition and Conference awards for our information technology achievements. Our IT strategy focuses on our commitment to sustain and improve our performance through the strengthening of our IT investments and implementation of risk management best practices.

Maintaining trust

We maintain high standards in the protection of employees, information, facilities, and systems through compliance and monitoring reviews that ensure an adequate policy framework and continue to improve and implement strategies to protect taxpayer information.

Enterprise risk management

Our approach to enterprise risk management has been designed to ensure that we develop and implement a systematic and comprehensive approach to manage risks. Based on our 2007 Corporate Risk Inventory, we developed our Risk Action Plan. Our complete plan, which includes response strategies and encompasses all 17 identified risks, was finalized and approved by our Board of Management in September 2008.

In March 2009, we also finalized our risk management learning strategy. The objectives of this strategy are twofold: to build our risk management capacity and to ensure that our employees have access to the knowledge and tools they need to fulfil their responsibilities related to risk management. These achievements have helped us better identify and mitigate risks to our business, as well as to maintain services to, and protect the interests of, the Canadian public.

Sound comptrollership

The results we have achieved in support of sound comptrollership strengthen accountability and oversight and promote the efficient and effective use of our financial resources. In 2008-2009, we made improvements to our financial systems and processes and improved the linkages between our resources and the results we achieved.

On April 1, 2009, two new Treasury Board policies came into effect: the Policy on Financial Management Governance and the Policy on Internal Control. In response to these policies, we drafted our financial management framework, our Policy on Financial Management Governance, and the Policy on Internal Control which stipulates the requirement for Chief Financial Officer certification. We also implemented another phase of our Financial Monitoring Framework (FMF) for Administered Activities in 2008-2009 related to non-resident withholding taxes. The objective of the FMF is to have a consistent and reliable framework to assess and minimize incomplete or inaccurate accounting and reporting of financial results through the timely monitoring of key risk indicators

In 2008-2009, we developed a comprehensive description of our internal controls over financial reporting to the provinces and territories on the corporation income tax program, to provide provincial and territorial governments with assurance regarding the accuracy and completeness of the financial information we provide under the Tax Collection Agreements. The Office of the Auditor General of Canada audited the description to determine fairness and accuracy, and the results of this audit will be shared with provincial and territorial governments, including management’s action plans to strengthen controls where needed.

Conclusion

During the past year, we delivered on our management priorities through our strong performance, timely and responsive decision-making, improved planning and reporting, and a fully accountable senior management culture. We believe that, based on our achievements this past year and the steps taken to strengthen our management infrastructure, we have supported our strategic outcomes for both the administration of Canada's tax laws and the delivery of benefits.

Board of Management Oversight Framework—Our Results

Board of Management Oversight Framework assessment of performance 2008-2009

Management Accountability Framework—CRA Results

Two-year comparison by Area of Management

Date modified:

2009-11-05