PACC Committee Report

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(e), the Standing Committee on Public Accounts has the honour to present its

ELEVENTH REPORT

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts has considered Chapter 21 of the December 2000 Report of the Auditor General of Canada (The Post-Secondary Recruitment Program of the Federal Public Service) and the Committee has agreed to report the following:

INTRODUCTION

The staffing of the federal public service is administered by the Public Service Commission (PSC) and is governed under the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA). The Act covers 20 departments and 60 agencies.

The Public Service Commission is an independent entity reporting to Parliament through a designated minister. It has exclusive authority for appointments to and within the public service and related responsibilities for recourse for such appointments. The Commission’s mandate is to ensure a highly competent, non-partisan professional public service appointed on the basis of merit and representative of the population it serves. Other responsibilities such as training and employment equity are also delegated to it.

The Post-Secondary Recruitment Program (PSRP) is the federal government’s main recruitment vehicle for a wide variety of entry-level professional positions. Traditionally, the public service has hired its future leaders at the entry level and developed them from within.

The Public Service Commission manages the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program, but other players are involved, including the Treasury Board Secretariat and other departments and agencies. The complexities of the relationships in the delivery of the program have already been outlined in Chapter 9 of the April 2000 Report (Streamlining the Human Resource Management Regime: A Study of Changing Roles and Responsibilities).

The Public Service is experiencing serious difficulties in recruiting skilled and qualified candidates. The number of executive, professional and managerial employees in the federal public sector is expected to shrink considerably in the next five years when a large proportion of the civil service becomes eligible for retirement. The Public Service must find ways to offset this loss of talent and experience while, at the same time, facing increased competition for qualified candidates from the private sector and other public sectors.

In light of all these recent developments, the Committee decided to hold hearings on the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program of the Federal Public Service and on 3 May 2001, the Committee gathered to hear testimony from witnesses of the Public Service Commission.

Representing the Office of the Auditor General of Canada were Ms. Sheila Fraser (Interim Auditor General of Canada), Ms. Maria Barrados (Assistant Auditor General), and Ms. Kathryn Elliot (Principal, Audit Operations Branch). Those representing the Public Service Commission were Mr. Scott Serson (President), Ms. Amelita A. Armit (Vice-President, Staffing and Recruitment Programs Branch), Mr. Douglas Rimmer (Vice-President, Policy, Research and Communications Branch), and Mr. Michael Nelson (Vice-President, Corporate Services).

OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Committee focused on the observations and recommendations contained in Chapter 21 of the December 2000 Report of the Auditor General of Canada. The audit noted serious weaknesses in the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program: ad hoc and reactive human resource planning and forecasting; restricted access of applicants to entry-level positions; the need for more systematic and aggressive use of university recruitment campaigns; and the limited assessment and reporting of program results to Parliament. Many of the problems are associated to the management of the Program itself and these can be fixed without resorting to legislative amendments.

The Post-Secondary Recruitment Program is a merit-based recruitment program that is advertised across Canada and recruits qualified candidates for the Public Service. The use of the program needs to be increased and its management must be improved in order to rejuvenate the federal public service.

Mr. Serson told the Committee that the protection of merit remains the primary concern of the Public Service Commission. This principle is crucial to an effective public service. The fact that the Public Service of Canada is considered as one of the most-respected and most professional of all public services in the world derives, as Mr Serson asserts, from the application of the merit principle.

The Public Service Commission was in general agreement with the audit’s observations and recommendations. The Commission has already taken measures to address some of the concerns raised in the audit report on the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program. As Mr. Serson stated: “most of the recommendations by the Auditor General actually reinforce actions already set out in our recruitment action plan that we developed prior to the release of the December 2000 report.”

Furthermore, Mr. Serson told the Committee that the Commission plans to convert the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program into a year-round program by September 2001.

The Committee was very concerned to discover that the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program (PSRP) offered jobs primarily in the National Capital Region. Complaints have been levelled at the Program about the lack of job opportunities in regions other than the National Capital Region. The Committee strongly disapproves of the practice of limiting post-secondary recruitment to one region of the country. Such a practice, the Committee believes, unnecessarily limits the pool of potential candidates for civil service positions, deprives the federal bureaucracy of the best available talent, and is inconsistent with the merit principle. Although the Committee acknowledges the measures already taken by the Commission, more serious and vigorous efforts are required to ensure that all potential candidates across Canada have an equal access to career opportunities within the federal public service. Therefore, the Committee recommends:

RECOMMENDATION 1

That the Public Service Commission immediately amend the practices and procedures of the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program to ensure that all regions across Canada have an equal opportunity for recruitment in the federal public service. That the Commission describe these corrective measures and report their progress against expected performance targets in its departmental progress report to Parliament for the year ending 31 March 2002.

The Committee was disappointed to learn about the Commission’s reactive approach to human resource planning. According to the audit, central agencies did not coordinate their human resource planning activities with departments to establish overall recruitment targets, nor did they provide direction or challenge the departments on their specific recruitment plans and priorities. Instead, central agencies often waited for the departments to act. Human resource planning under the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program is not based on projected vacancies or other analyses; instead, the recruitment levels are essentially based on ad hoc requests emanating from a few departments.

During the hearing, Mr. Serson described some of his organization’s actions to build up its human resource planning capacity. The Commission and the Treasury Board Secretariat are currently providing demographic analysis and modelling services to departments and agencies to improve their human resource planning and forecasting capacity. It is hoped that improved human resource planning by departments will encourage more strategic use of the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program. The Public Service Commission has also formed a special committee to enhance departmental recruitment planning and improve the Commission’s own ability to develop targeted recruitment strategies. As a result of the activities of the special committee, the number of participating departments has increased from eight to seventeen between 2000 and 2001.

The Committee welcomes these developments but remains unconvinced that these measures alone would prove sufficient to address all the issues concerning human resource planning. The problem is not just a question of building up capacity in the Commission’s human resource planning capabilities; it also stems from a lack of clear understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities between central agencies and departments regarding the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program. Stakeholders must first clarify their roles and responsibilities, set priorities, and then establish their capacity. The Committee believes that the Public Service Commission should take a greater leadership role in the human resource planning of the federal public service, specifically regarding the oversight and coordination of the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program. Thus the Committee recommends:

RECOMMENDATION 2

That the Public Service Commission, the Secretariat of the Treasury Board of Canada and departments engage in a dialogue to determine their respective roles and responsibilities regarding human resource planning and management in the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program. Once the roles and responsibilities are clearly established and the respective priorities are developed regarding the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program, that the Commission provide a statement describing specific responsibilities and priorities in its performance report to Parliament beginning with the report for the year ending 31 March 2002.

RECOMMENDATION 3

That the Public Service Commission, once having established its roles and responsibilities regarding the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program, build up its human resource capacity. That the Commission describe these measures and report their progress against expected performance targets in its departmental progress report to Parliament beginning with the report for the period ending 31 March 2002.

The Committee is also very concerned about the limited information on program results contained in the Commission’s accountability documents. The Public Service Commission’s accountability documents provide very little information on results achieved and expected performance. The focus of reporting is more on activities instead of results or outcomes. The Committee noted a lack of balanced reporting in the documents. There is very little information or discussion on recruitment and training challenges that the Commission must address. Furthermore, the financial and statistical information contained in these documents tend to be very summary. Results-based management requires that accountability documents present information on the basis of results achieved compared to performance benchmarks, and how these results translate into desired outcomes. It was noted, that on several occasions, Mr. Serson communicated to the Committee about the need for additional resources to update the Commission’s computer systems, yet it’s annual report contained practically no information on this matter. If the Commission’s accountability documents do not clearly disclose current and future resource requirements, how can Parliament be made aware and respond to the Commission’s needs? Therefore, the Committee recommends:

RECOMMENDATION 4

That the Public Service Commission strengthen the content of its accountability documents, notably the Commission’s annual report, the report on plans and priorities and the performance reports to Parliament, with respect to human resource management matters, and that these reports contain information about results expected and achieved.

The audit indicated that the Public Service Commission could make greater use of Post-Secondary campaign results. The Commission spends a considerable amount of time, effort and money to advertise positions, process applications and assess candidates; however, it does not maintain a database of qualified candidates for referrals in other general recruitment processes. For example, in 1998-99, the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program received some 11,500 applications and referred some 6,400 for further assessment, of those, about 800 received appointments. The remaining referrals were not retained for consideration in future vacancies. The Committee believes that if the Commission made available a database containing an inventory of pre-screened qualified candidates to government managers, the staffing process could be more streamlined and efficient; and more hiring could be encouraged on a full-time basis. The Commission already manages an inventory of candidates for information management and information technology and uses innovative techniques to expand opportunities for graduates and to facilitate staffing for managers. The Post-Secondary Recruitment Program could benefit from some of these innovative techniques. The Committee thus recommends the following:

RECOMMENDATION 5

That the Public Service Commission apply the results from the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program to develop a database of pre-screened candidates to be made available for referrals in other general recruitment processes. That the database maintain a list of pre-screened candidates for at least six months before requiring re-registration.  That the Public Service Commission describe and report the progress against the expected timetable of implementation in its departmental progress report to Parliament beginning with the report for the period ending 31 March 2002.

CONCLUSION

The Committee is very concerned about the federal government’s ability to recruit new knowledge workers and renew its aging professional and management workforce. The observed administrative shortcomings raise questions about the Public Service Commission’s ability to recruit effectively for the federal government. The Committee believes that the Commission should take a more active role when participating with other departments and agencies in estimating future employment needs and developing recruitment strategies. The Commission should also explore new opportunities to better promote the federal public service in Canadian universities and across the country. Furthermore, the Commission could better use program results in order to assess and report on the activities of the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program. Given that the federal government is concurrently undertaking a comprehensive review of its human resource management regime which may lead to significant legislative amendments, it is essential that the Public Service Commission immediately address the outstanding managerial and administrative shortcomings of the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program in order to strengthen its recruitment practices and provide better support to the government’s human resource needs.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the Committee requests that the Government table a comprehensive response to this report.

A copy of the relevant Minutes of Proceedings (Meeting Nos. 12, 13 and 34) is tabled.

Respectfully submitted,

John Williams, M.P.
Chair