PACP Committee Report
If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.
|
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ACCOUNTS: Chapter 5, Keeping the Border Open And Secure - Canada Border Services Agency of the October 2007 Report of the Auditor General Of Canada On February 25, 2009, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts tabled its report “Chapter 5, Keeping The Border Open And Secure - Canada Border Services Agency of the October 2007 Report of the Auditor General Of Canada.” Pursuant to Standing Order 109 of the House of Commons, the Government must provide a comprehensive response to the Report within 120 days, or by June 25, 2009. The Government thanks the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for its consideration and Report, and welcomes the interest and continuing effort of the Committee to ensure a safe and secure border. The Government has considered the Committee recommendations and looks forward to keeping the Committee abreast of its progress in addressing them. This Government Response addresses all of the report’s recommendations. The following is the Government Response. Recommendation 1 The Canada Border Services Agency provide the Public Accounts Committee with a status report on its implementation of the recommendations contained in Chapter 5: Keeping the Borders Open and Secure – Canada Border Services Agency of the October 2007 Auditor General’s report by 31 December 2008. The Government supports the first recommendation. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is providing, as a part of this Response, the Public Accounts Committee (PACP) with a status report on the progress achieved to date on the implementation of the 14 recommendations made by the Auditor General (AG) in her October 2007 report. The report is attached. Recommendation 2 The Canada Border Services Agency include in its Departmental Performance Report a discussion on the Agency’s risk management strategies. The Government supports the second recommendation. The CBSA has reported on the progress of the implementation of its risk management strategies in its 2007-2008 Departmental Performance Reports (DPR), and will do so again in its 2008-2009 report. Recommendation 3 The Canada Border Services Agency provide a status report on the implementation of its training models in its 2008-2009 Departmental Performance Report. The Government supports the third recommendation. The CBSA will provide a status report on the implementation of its training models in its 2008-2009 Departmental Performance Report (DPR). The Agency has already reported on its progress in its 2007-2008 DPR. Targeting involves the analysis of data collected on persons and goods prior to their arrival in Canada for the purpose of identifying those that may pose a threat or contravene border related legislation or regulations. In its current state, the targeting training program is a series of specialized training products that are not yet nationally integrated or coordinated. Some targeting training is carried out by the National Risk Assessment Centre, some by regions and some by National Headquarters. Resources have been dedicated to the creation of a national targeting training program that will ensure targeters have a common approach to performing analysis of available information and make better-informed decisions as to whether examination is necessary. A pilot of the new Foundation of Targeting Course was delivered in October 2008. Also, to provide targeters with a complete suite of training courses on targeting, the CBSA is presently developing Air Targeting and Cargo (Marine and Air) modules that will complement the Foundations of Targeting Course with mode-specific modules. The complete Targeting Training Program (Foundation and mode-specific) will be implemented in the fall of 2009. Targeting training will only be delivered by certified targeting trainers to border services officers (BSOs) that work as targeting officers. The targeting foundations and mode-specific courses will be coordinated and delivered from National Headquarters, to ensure the consistency of delivery. Work has also begun on an instrument that will enable the CBSA to measure participant performance on the job after receiving training. Although targeting training is only offered to BSOs that work as targeters, BSO recruits are provided with training on questioning skills, indicators of non-compliance, information systems and intelligence through the Port Of Entry Recruit Training. Also, more in-depth courses are offered to experienced employees, such as courses on interview techniques and interview skills, behavioural analysis, passenger and commercial motor vehicles, and aircraft examinations. These courses all contain information on how to select people and shipments for examination. Recommendation 4 The Canada Border Services Agency review its process for charging examination fees so as to ensure that there are no additional charges levied on those carriers chosen for random inspections. The Government accepts the fourth Committee recommendation only in part. The CBSA has considered the process of levying examination fees. While the Government appreciates the Committee’s concerns, it has concluded that the process of levying examination fees will not be changed. The CBSA’s offload policy establishes mandatory standards for the offload process. The CBSA facilitates this process by making a third-party service provider available, but not mandatory, to carriers and importers. In other words, in the event that an importer or carrier is unable to meet the mandatory standards (which are outlined in the policy document), the CBSA provides access to a service provider deemed to have met these standards. If the Government were to pay the costs of the service provider, the financial implication would be significant, and the Government would expose itself to numerous liability claims and incur increased administrative costs (i.e. invoice administration, collections). The duty of importers or carriers to report and present their goods to customs, which includes the responsibility for all associated costs should an offload be required, is longstanding. Under the Customs Act, all shipments entering Canada may be subject to an examination. Decisions regarding which shipments are to be examined are mostly the result of targeting, based on intelligence, although some random exams are conducted. In this manner, the CBSA is risk managing the border. With respect to the collection of fees, the CBSA does not charge inspection and examination fees and therefore does not bring in any revenue from them. The CBSA selects and examines conveyances, with no costs imposed on the importer or carrier by the Agency. The CBSA pays the costs of inspection personnel, equipment, and tools. The fee for presenting goods for examination (unloading and reloading the conveyance) is generated by the service provider and billed to the carrier (i.e. it is the offload service provider that is responsible for all invoicing and the collection of fees charged to the carrier for the services provided). As well, because the service provider does not know which containers were selected through a random process and which were targeted by the CBSA, there is no difference in what importers or carriers are charged (i.e. the fees are standardized). No assumption can be made at this time that the random examinations program will result in a net increase in exams and therefore any change in total offload costs. Systems-generated random examinations are applied at an equal rate to all carriers. Although higher volume carriers should expect to experience a higher number of random examinations relative to lower volume carriers, the total numbers of random examinations will be evenly spread across the industry. The United States uses the same third-party system for levying offload fees, so this policy does not make Canadian companies less competitive than American companies. Annex to the Government Response to the Public Accounts Committee’s Second Report Keeping the Border Open and Secure – OAG Chapter 5 – October 2007 2009 Progress Report on Recommendations Since its inception in 2003, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been engaged in an ongoing process to develop a modern risk-based and intelligence-driven organization. In its October 2007 report, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) made a series of timely recommendations which helped guide the Agency to achieve its desired objectives. As a consequence, CBSA has put in place improvements which not only address specific concerns raised by the OAG, but others which have been identified by subsequent internal reviews. To strengthen its intelligence and risk analysis capacity, the Agency has reorganized and strengthened its Intelligence Directorate, which provides a broad range of strategic and tactical intelligence products and has led to more direct information-sharing linkages across the CBSA, as well as with domestic and international partners. Similar to other modern border management administrations, the CBSA has implemented programs to “push the border out”, allowing the Agency to rigorously risk assess people and goods prior to their arrival to Canada. To both further elaborate and address the specific recommendations made by the OAG, the Agency undertook a comprehensive evaluation of its pre-arrival targeting activities. A detailed action plan has been developed to ensure a focussed approach is taken to implementing the improvements. Central to these improvements will be more directly aligning the Agency’s operational plans, resources and efforts with the border threats and risks identified through intelligence and risk-analysis, as well as ongoing performance measurement for our targeting programs. Central to the success of the CBSA is its knowledgeable, well-trained and professional employees. In addition to the ongoing training related to the arming of Border Services Officers, the Agency has initiated the development of an integrated training and learning framework and advanced other key training programs. For example, a national training program has been developed for CBSA employees involved in pre-arrival targeting activities and an increased number of Border Services Officers have been cross-trained on all aspects of our integrated border mandate. At the enterprise level, an Integrated Risk Management Framework (IRMF) has been established, with mitigation plans in place for the most significant risks identified in the Enterprise Risk Profile. While the IRMF is designed primarily to identify and assist in the mitigation of corporate risks, it will also assist the Agency in dealing effectively with operational threats and risks. Effective risk management also calls for contingency plans to be in place to deal with exceptional circumstances. To that end, the CBSA has updated its Emergency Response Plan to reflect our enhanced security mandate. These investments in strengthening the foundation of the Agency’s intelligence and risk-based border programs, combined with the progress made in addressing the OAG’s recommendations, position the CBSA to ensure the integrity of Canada’s borders in an increasingly complex and dynamic threat environment. 5.20 Recommendation: CBSA should complete its development of an Integrated Risk Management Framework to guide the delivery of border services in support of its mandate for public safety and trade facilitation. Progress: To date, the CBSA has:
Next Steps: During 2009/10, the CBSA will continue to implement the Integrated Risk Management Framework by:
5.35 Recommendation: CBSA should establish controls and monitoring for its pre-approval programs to ensure that persons who are assessed above low-risk at time of admission based on reasonable and credible information are monitored and their participation in the program is reviewed to ensure that their net risk level is reduced to low. Progress: The CBSA has reviewed and improved its controls for the pre-approval programs. The new controls strengthen the monitoring of program participants at the border; they have been implemented for the people programs and will be fully in place for the commercial programs by June 2009. These controls include a periodic risk assessment of participants to determine if they continue to meet the low risk threshold established for the program. This assessment is done in collaboration with the CBSA enforcement partners to identify program participants of higher risk. In these cases, the process involves increased monitoring to ensure their net risk level is at a low level. Next Steps: The effectiveness of these new controls will be monitored by management. The results of monitoring will be reported by March 2010. 5.61 Recommendation: CBSA should design and implement a risk management framework for its pre-arrival targeting activities that links the identified level of risk with the level and extent of examination. Progress: To address several of the specific observations made by the OAG in relation to pre-arrival targeting activities, the CBSA has:
Additionally, throughout 2007/08, the CBSA conducted a comprehensive evaluation of its pre-arrival targeting activities and developed a detailed action plan to make program improvements. To ensure a focused approach is taken to implement the resulting action plan, a targeting task force was established in 2008/09. Next Steps: During 2009/10, the CBSA will continue to implement key elements of the targeting program, including:
5.62 Recommendation: The CBSA should ensure that:
Progress: The CBSA has reviewed and improved its controls to ensure that employees are documenting the reasons for their referral decisions and the results of subsequent examinations. These controls include a process monitoring tool to assist regional managers in ensuring program delivery is consistent with national priorities, guidelines and standard operating procedures. While additional work is required to systematically use the documented results of examinations to improve future referrals, based on the analysis of historical data and advanced mathematics, the CBSA is making preliminary enhancements to its targeting and risk assessment systems. Next Steps: Throughout 2009/10, the CBSA will continue to ensure standard operating procedures to document the reasons for referrals and the results of subsequent examinations are followed. As initiatives such as eManifest are implemented, the Agency’s ability to make improvements to its pre-arrival targeting will be enhanced through the ongoing analysis of historical trends, patterns and results. 5.63 Recommendation: To promote targeting consistency and quality in the targeting process, CBSA should develop a mandatory training program for all border services officers on targeting advance information. The syllabus for the training program should be based on a corporate-wide needs analysis, and its delivery should be monitored, evaluated and reported on. Progress: In 2008, the CBSA developed and piloted a training program for Border Services Officers involved in the targeting and risk assessment of advance information on people and goods entering the country. Next Steps: In 2009, the CBSA will initiate the national implementation of the training program. The delivery and effectiveness of the training program will be monitored and evaluated, with preliminary results reported to CBSA management. 5.68 Recommendation: CBSA should implement an emergency response plan for all activities of its new mandate. Progress: The CBSA has developed and implemented an Emergency Response Plan entitled “The All Hazards Manual” that reflects its new mandate. The Plan, comprised of key elements such as Managing a Significant Incident and Threats to Public Health and Food Safety was fully implemented in 2007 in accordance with observations from the OAG. The Emergency Response Plan provides general guidelines for response to all types of emergencies. This Plan also prescribes procedures and the manner in which CBSA employees will respond to an emergency. Additionally, Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) were developed in 2008 for each branch and region of the CBSA. These plans identify how to take stock and reconvene key management and operational elements of the Agency once the immediate danger of a critical event has passed. All National Headquarters branches and regional offices have completed their assessment of plans in order to identify and address gaps. A Testing and Evaluation Strategy is underway as part of the Business Continuity Plan. This strategy will include a series of discussions and mock scenarios for various audiences responsible for the delivery of critical services throughout the Agency, allowing branches to evaluate the functionality of their plans. Next Steps: The implementation of the Testing and Evaluation Strategy will begin in summer 2009. An Agency-wide maintenance cycle for Business Continuity Plans has been developed and implementation is underway. In accordance with the maintenance cycle, plans are and will continue to be reviewed on a regular basis and updated to reflect ongoing program changes within the CBSA business environment. While tabletop exercises are being finalized the exercises run by the CBSA to test emergency plans have allowed limited validation of the existing BCPs. Further testing of the completed BCPs, including strategies to maintain operations during systems outages, will be incorporated and tested as part of the Comprehensive Exercise Plan being implemented by the CBSA. As future exercises are developed, the capacity to test BCPs on an ongoing basis will be included. 5.81 Recommendation: The CBSA should better develop its risk-based approach for the delivery of integrated border services, and use this as a basis for deploying its resources and focusing enforcement efforts. Progress: To date, the CBSA has:
Additionally, the Agency has approved, and validated through a pilot, an Integrated Risk Management Framework which will be implemented on an accelerated basis. This Framework will be a valuable tool to identify and address the gaps and challenges to the effective delivery of risk-based border management across the country. Next Steps: During 2009/10, the CBSA will:
5.87 Recommendation: CBSA should continue to develop its policies and procedures for creating and using lookouts. In addition, it should improve its monitoring documentation and follow-up of lookouts, and develop measures to ensure that information is collected and shared appropriately. Progress: The CBSA has and will continue to develop policies and procedures regarding the creation and use of lookouts. To this end, the Agency has recently taken the following steps to improve the way it manages and uses lookouts:
Next Steps: The CBSA is consulting internally and with partner agencies on further steps to enhance the effectiveness of quality control procedures, and is assessing the viability of short-term options to address any remaining gaps. In the longer term, the CBSA will consider options to automate its lookouts. 5.88 Recommendation: CBSA officers should consistently document the results of referral decisions and the results of their examinations. Progress: As outlined in Recommendation 5.62, the CBSA has reviewed and improved its controls to ensure that employees are documenting the reasons for their referral decisions and the results of subsequent examinations. These controls include a process monitoring tool to assist regional managers in ensuring program delivery is consistent with national priorities, guidelines and standard operating procedures. Next Steps: Throughout 2009/10, the CBSA will continue to ensure standard operating procedures to document the reasons for referrals and the results of subsequent examinations are followed. 5.91 Recommendation: CBSA should improve the application and monitoring of its controls of seized goods, and improve documentation for its currency seizure decisions. Progress: In response to a CBSA internal audit and observations made by the OAG, a comprehensive action plan with short, medium, and long term deliverables has been put in place to address these deficiencies. The following short term deliverables were recently completed by the CBSA:
Next Steps: By December 31, 2009, the CBSA will develop a Storage and Disposal Policy based on an ongoing review of operational procedures for controlling and disposing of seized goods. Additionally, by April 30, 2010, the CBSA will:
These actions will allow the CBSA to close the gaps identified in the internal audit for safeguarding, accounting for and properly disposing of seized goods. 5.98 Recommendation: CBSA should evaluate its training to determine its effectiveness in meeting the Agency’s priorities. As well, CBSA should develop a national implementation plan for cross-training Border Service Officers, and monitor its progress. Progress: The CBSA is developing a Training and Learning Framework and Governance Structure that will provide an integrated vision for managing and planning training and learning activities. An assessment is underway to determine the operational need for additional Border Services Officers to be cross-trained in all three program areas (customs, immigration, and food, plant and animal inspection). At present, 2,957 Border Services Officers have been fully cross-trained while 2,145 individuals are trained on two of the three legacy programs. A roll-out plan for further cross-training will be developed once the needs assessment is completed, and the training delivery will be monitored until the required number of Border Services Officers has been trained. Next Steps: The CBSA is conducting a three phase evaluation of its Port of Entry Recruit Training (POERT) program in order to determine its effectiveness in meeting the Agency’s priorities. The first two phases of the evaluation which evaluates learner satisfaction, validity of exams, and the transfer of learning to the job, have been completed and improvements to the POERT program are being made based on the results. The third phase will start in fiscal year 2009/10 and will focus on job performance of the new officers. 5.107 Recommendation: CBSA should implement the necessary controls to ensure that the result of each referral and examination is recorded promptly. Progress: As outlined in Recommendation 5.62, the CBSA has reviewed and improved its controls to ensure that employees are documenting the reasons for their referral decisions and the results of subsequent examinations. These controls include a process monitoring tool to assist regional managers in ensuring program delivery is consistent with national priorities, guidelines and standard operating procedures. Next Steps: Throughout 2009/10, the CBSA will continue to ensure standard operating procedures to document the reasons for referrals and the results of subsequent examinations are followed. 5.108 Recommendation: CBSA should develop and implement a mandatory country-wide random examination program for both people and goods that include examining each more frequently if they pose additional risks. Progress: The CBSA is currently developing a random examination program for both people and goods. The program strategy is based on lessons learned from a recently documented baseline of current systems capacities, CBSA regional practices, and best and worst practices from comparator countries. In support of these efforts, CBSA mathematicians are engaged to develop random examination mathematical models specific to CBSA challenges. Next Steps: A senior management review of strategic options to improve random examinations is required to identify the eventual scope of the program. The Agency expects to complete the senior management review by September 2009, and to implement its improved random examination program by March 2011. Also, the eManifest initiative will introduce enhancements to automated systems that will improve the manner in which random examination referrals for commercial goods are selected. 5.109 Recommendation: CBSA should record the results of its examinations and use them to improve its ability to identify and examine higher risk people and goods. Progress: As outlined in Recommendation 5.62, the CBSA has reviewed and improved its controls to ensure that employees are documenting the reasons for their referral decisions and the results of subsequent examinations. These controls include a process monitoring tool to assist regional managers in ensuring program delivery is consistent with national priorities, guidelines and standard operating procedures. While additional work is required to systematically use the documented results of examinations to improve future referrals, based on the analysis of historical data and advanced mathematics, the CBSA is making preliminary enhancements to its targeting and risk assessment systems. Next Steps: Throughout 2009/10, the CBSA will continue to ensure standard operating procedures to document the reasons for referrals and the results of subsequent examinations are followed. As initiatives such as eManifest are implemented, the Agency’s ability to make improvements to its pre-arrival targeting will be enhanced through the ongoing analysis of historical trends, patterns and results. |