PACC Committee Report

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) recommended:

Revenue Canada has recognized the need to address particular human resources challenges and has acted to respond to these challenges. A departmental action plan has been put in place since the Auditor General’s (AG) report. A part of this action plan includes a staffing plan for International Tax Directorate (ITD) which was initiated in May 1999. This staffing plan will ensure that the Directorate has, and will continue to have, a full complement of staff with the appropriate qualifications, training and experience.

The Department is committed to having a business plan which incorporates a human resources plan. The Corporate Business Plan 1999-2000, which will be reviewed by the Agency’s Board of Management, has the following two human resources related objectives:

• to have in place a responsive and adaptive human resources function that will help us evolve to an employer of choice; and

• to implement an integrated management framework for the Agency that enables effective planning, decision-making, resource management, and accountability.

The proposed Corporate Business Plan will be submitted for consideration to the Treasury Board in January 2000. Moreover, with the creation of the Agency, the link between human resources plans and business plans will be strengthened and will be a more integral feature of the overall planning process. Branch business plans will be submitted in support of this process. The ITD will form a component of the Verification, Enforcement and Compliance Research (VECR) Branch business plan.

The PAC recommended:

Human resources matters are already explicitly stated as a priority in Revenue Canada’s 1999-2000 Estimates, Part III, Reports on Plans and Priorities, and are entrenched in the accountability contract between the Deputy Minister and the appropriate assistant deputy minister.

In addition, when the Department becomes an Agency, there are legislative provisions that will require the Agency to report on information about its performance with respect to the objectives established in the corporate business plan, which includes human resources planning, and a summary statement of any assessment by the AG of the fairness and reliability of the information.

Revenue Canada believes it is important to report on the implementation of its Department’s Action Plan and it will report on the progress made in its annual Performance Report to Parliament this year.

The PAC recommended:

Revenue Canada has established the CAS as a department-wide effort dealing with financial and human resources information needs for Revenue Canada. The human resources component will include enhanced human resources information and data bases on key human resources processes such as staffing, classification, compensation, some aspects of staff relations, training, management, and employee information. From a management perspective, CAS will improve managerial decision-making, support better planning and monitoring of human and operating resources and facilitate improved organizational and program performance through the strategic use of consistent, high quality, financial and human resources information leading to the ability of the Department to address the issues raised in the PAC report.

The implementation of the financial and material management components of CAS took place on April 1, 1999. The component pertaining to warehouse management was implemented on July 8, 1999. The first phase of the human resources components was tested this summer and is now operational.

Parliament will be informed of the progress of this initiative through the Department’s annual Performance Report.

The report is available on the Parliamentary Internet Site at WWW.PARL.GC.CA