How Government Works
Presentation to the Financial Management Institute
May 22, 2014
Doug Nevison
Assistant Secretary, Privy Council Office
View from 30,000 Feet
GC policy priorities
• Economic: jobs, trade, balanced budget
• Social: safe and secure families and communities
• Other: Military, veterans, the North, international role
GC administrative priorities
• Control the size and the cost of government operations
• Reform the way spending is managed
• Make government more efficient and responsive
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Privy Council Office (PCO)
• The Clerk of the Privy Council
– Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister
– Secretary to the Cabinet
– Head of the Public Service of Canada
• Business Transformation and Renewal Secretariat
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Advise PM and Clerk on management policy
Support Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee
Support DM Board of Management and Renewal
Draft Annual Report to the PM on the Public Service
• Liaison Secretariat for Macroeconomic Policy
– Advise PM and Clerk on Budget issues
– Provide advice on financial sector and tax policy proposals
– Strategic advice and analysis on economic and financial issues
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Blueprint 2020
• Background
– How did this get started? What is the objective?
• Engagement process
– Who we engaged, how we engaged
• What we heard
– Priority areas, specific ideas
• Destination 2020
– Key signature horizontal initiatives
• Next Steps
– Implementation, continued engagement
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Expenditure Management System (EMS) Reform
• Goal of EMS reform is to increase oversight
– Ongoing need to increase the rigour of financial decisions in a
constrained fiscal environment
– Improved external and internal oversight to address current
challenges and Ministerial expectations
• External Oversight: Estimates reform to be achieved through
strengthening Parliamentary scrutiny of Estimates and supply
• Internal Oversight: Upfront discipline on new and existing
spending to be strengthened through more rigorous costing and
better information to inform decision-making
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Expenditure Management System (EMS) Reform
• External Oversight
– June 2012 Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations
and Estimates (OGGO) – “Strengthening Parliamentary Scrutiny of
Estimates and Supply” – made many recommendations to:
– Ensure that Parliamentarians have clear and understandable
Estimates information; and
– Provide sufficient support and capacity for members to interpret
the information available
– TBS launched searchable online expenditure database containing
information on departmental spending authorities (April 2013)
– Increasing information available at a program level – three years back,
three years forward, and at lower levels – how far do we go with
measures/indicators?
– Potential changes in the vote structure?
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Expenditure Management System (EMS) Reform
• Internal Oversight
– New spending
• Integrating more rigorous costing and stronger contextual information into new
spending decisions will help ensure that decisions are based on the best
available information
• TBS will require more stringent Chief Financial Officer attestations, better
costing tools and standards
• TBS will increase its capacity to challenge and inform costing, improve the
consistency and quality of costing information to allow for better comparisons,
and in certain cases, do in-depth costing
• To achieve this, a new Costing Centre of Excellence in the Office of the
Comptroller General has been established
– Existing spending
• The ongoing review of existing spending is also required to ensure that
resources are directed only to those programs and activities that remain
priorities of the government and achieve value for money
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Financial Management Transformation (FMT)
Diagnostique
• Common framework of legislation and TB policy
• Variation in specific processes and IT applications
• Opportunities to enhance effectiveness and efficiency
Principles
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“Enterprise” approach: the GC as a single organization
Adopt lessons learned from other large organizations
Tailor for use in the Public Service of Canada
Integrate FM with other back-office functions
Business-led, not technology-led
Phased implementation
TBS and OGDs are developing business case
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Conclusion
• Interesting times in the Public Service of Canada
– Serving the Government, Parliament, Canadians
– Contributing to eliminating the deficit by 2015
– Changes from B2020, EMS reform, FMT
• FI Community plays a vital role
– Key part of policy development and program delivery
– Fulfils special trust over taxpayers’ dollars
– Increasingly adding strategic value
• Make the connections today
– Part of the bigger picture
– Your role in the process
– How you can contribute
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