Public Sector Integrity Commissioner
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“The Office of the Public Sector Integrity
Commissioner of Canada is an independent Agency
of Parliament created in 2007 under the Public
Servants Disclosure Protection Act (the Act).”
The Commissioner is an Agent of Parliament
appointed by resolution of the Senate and House of
Commons. He/she reports directly to Parliament.
Under investigation by the Auditor General, Public
Sector Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet
resigned in 2010.
December 2010, AG released her report critical of
Integrity Commissioner.
Controversy over the Integrity
Commissioner
“Former Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet modeled many
of the behaviours that she was charged with driving out of the
public service:
 abusing her staff, taking reprisals against a former employee, and
demonstrating 'reluctance' to find wrongdoing;
 failing to do her job. The Auditor General reported that Ouimet failed
to fulfill her mandate: in three years she found zero cases of
wrongdoing and failed to protect a single whistleblower from
reprisals;
 when the Auditor General's investigation into her conduct was
nearing completion, Ouimet negotiated a $500,000 settlement,
including a gag order seemingly designed to protect her (and the
government) from criticism or consequences;
 displaying a disregard for our democratic institutions by refusing for
months to respond to a Parliamentary committee as it tried to
summon her to explain her actions.”
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http://fairwhistleblower.ca/no-more-ouimets
Public Sector Integrity Commissioner
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News Release - Public Sector Integrity Commissioner makes
findings of wrongdoing by a Manager of Human Resources and
Skills Development Canada, March 8, 2011
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Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR) news release Whistleblower agency’s first report of wrongdoing is a small step
forward.
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“Integrity czar blasts bureaucrat’s bullying, spending habits”
Globe and Mail
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“Federal public sector integrity commissioner finally finds
wrongdoing” Toronto Star
Collaborative Governance
Week 9
Collaborative Governance
Dutil et al., 2010 discuss:
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Collaboration with non-governmental actors
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Collaboration with other levels of government
Collaboration with non-governmental
actors
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“In recent years there has been increasing
attention paid to the participation of non-state
actors including citizens, non-profit
organizations and firms in state decision
making and service delivery” (Dutil et al.,
2010: 86).
Two issues emerge
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“the problem of establishing who is
responsible for doing what”
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“developing structures and processes for
ensuring accountability”
Shared responsibility
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“the particular need to seek long term
partnerships with private sector IT firms to
transform the related but separate face-toface and phone based service delivery
systems into an integrated, multi-channel
system making significant use of the Internet”
(Dutil et al., 2010: 89).
Governance and Accountability Challenge
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“progress on actually building new
governance regimes for cross-boundary
service integration in Canada has
been…modest” (91).
“the responsibilities of each party can be
difficult to clarify” (93).
“transparency can suffer” (93).
Public sector dependency on private
partner
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“there is a risk that government organizations may
become continuously dependent on the private
sector players for the delivery of services as the
latter takes control of front and/or back office
functions essential to multi-channel service delivery”
(93).
“This dependency and the accompanying hollowing
out of the ranks of middle level managers can
diminish the capacity of government organizations to
understand what is being done in their name by their
partners and, as important, reduces their capacity to
enforce learning and consequences if shortfalls in
service delivery become visible” (93).
Case study: BC-IBM Canada Agreement
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A master service agreement signed in 2005.
There has been an ongoing legal battle to make the
complete agreement publicly available.
In 2011, BC Health authorities signed “an agreement
with IBM to provide desktop management services
that includes workstation support and a 24/7 service
desk to all health authorities.”
http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_20092013/2011HSERV0001-000012.htm
Crossing Jurisdictional Boundaries
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“Joined Up” approaches to service delivery
“Integrated Public Governance”
The challenge
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“tensions between political federalism on the one
hand, and new and more integrative and crossjurisdictional models of service delivery on the other
hand” (Dutil et al., 2010: 107).
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“Political leaders and federalism scholars have paid
little more than lip service to the idea of extending
the scope of the collaborative federalism model
include cross-boundary activities of service delivery
agencies” (Dutil et al., 2010: 109).
Creating a common infrastructure
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Late 90s saw creation of two federal councils;
The Public Sector Service Delivery Council
The Public Sector Chief Information Officer
Council
Institute for Citizen-Centred Service
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“The federal, provincial, and territorial
representatives of the Public Sector Service
Delivery Council agreed to establish the ICCS as
an ongoing centre of expertise in citizen-centred
service. Supported by the Public Sector Chief
Information Officers Council and incubated by
the Institute of Public Administration of Canada,
the ICCS is working with governments across
Canada (and around the world) to improve
citizen satisfaction with public-sector service
delivery.”
Signs of progress…
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“Further evidence of the informal build-up of
pressure for a common infrastructure has been a
growing list of bilateral and multilateral crossjurisdictional initiatives aimed at either sharing or
integrating information including: portals for such
client groups as senior citizens; business
registration via BizPal and Business Registration
Online; and vital events information sharing
including the newborn registration service launched
by ServiceOntario and Service Canada that provides
quick and seamless access to parents for birth
registration, birth certificates and social insurance
numbers” (Dutil et al., 2010: 115).
…but limits.
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“The stumbling block emerges in attempting
to stitch a number of these like-minded
innovations into a broader quilt (or
architecture) for systematic information
management and business model planning
across the public sector as a whole” (Dutil et
al., 2010: 115).
An identity management system
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For example: Canada Health Infoway:
“Infoway is an independent not-for-profit corporation created by
Canada’s First Ministers in 2001 to foster and accelerate the
development and adoption of electronic health record (EHR)
systems with compatible standards and communications
technologies.
Funded by the Government of Canada, Infoway works with the
country’s ten provinces and three territories to implement private,
secure EHR systems, enabling best practices and successful
projects in one region to be shared or replicated in other
regions.”
eHealth Ontario was created in 2008, it ran into problems with
consultant costs and highly questionable spending: the Ontario
Auditor General issued a highly critical report in 2009
Forum of Federations – Roundtable on
Joint Service Delivery
“joint service provision can range from
coordination of delivery by different
departments/agencies in one or more
governments to real or virtual co-location
and/or the integration of multiple channels
(e.g. in-person, telephone, online).”
Joint Service Delivery in Federal
Countries, by Tony Dean
“Canada has earned an international reputation
for its success in developing a customerfocused and integrated approach to
delivering transactional services.”
“Canada, and particularly its federal service
delivery brand, Service Canada, is regularly
mentioned in international reports as a world
leader in integrated service delivery.”
Joint Service Delivery in Federal
Countries, by Tony Dean
“Canada’s political leaders tend to have taken a back
seat in this area of public administration, perhaps
seeing it as the business of the public service.”
One exception occurred in Ontario: “it became
necessary to tackle a 9-month waiting time for new
birth certificates…The province’s Premier instructed
that it be fixed. This resulted in birth certificate
applications being moved securely on-line, with
delivery time being reduced from months to days.”
Joint Service Delivery in Federal
Countries, by Tony Dean
“Ontario also initiated some of the first significant
integration efforts with the federal government and
municipalities, such as the bundling of a one-time
application for three services previously only
available from separate offices: municipal birth
registration, provincial birth certificates and federal
Social Insurance Numbers. These are now available
through a single on-line application process with a
money-back service guarantee.”
Joint Service Delivery in Federal
Countries, by Tony Dean
“Canada’s track record in joining up services first within, and later
between, jurisdictional levels is a carefully studied success story
that many countries seek to emulate.”
“It is notable though that for the most part this is a success story
about the alignment and joining up of complementary
transactional services.”
“There is considerably less focus at the federal and provincial levels
on joint approaches to the delivery of human services such as
those in the health, community, social and children’s services and
justice sectors.”