Stronger Financial Management and Accountability

• The Treasury Board has been re-mandated to focus on providing more rigorous oversight of government expenditures and will be responsible for continuous reallocation and realignment of spending from lower priorities to higher priorities;
  
  
• The government will launch this process of continuing reallocation through a fundamental review of all programs and expenditures by a new Expenditure Review Committee, chaired by the President of the Treasury Board, to ensure that spending remains under control and is closely aligned with the evolving priorities of government. The Committee will begin its work as early as possible in the New Year and will submit its first set of recommendations to the Prime Minister in the autumn of 2004;
  
  
• The functions and structure of the Treasury Board Secretariat, which provides advice and support to Treasury Board Ministers, have been streamlined to reflect the Board’s new focus on ensuring value for money and providing oversight of the financial management functions in departments and agencies.  The Secretariat will also have a key role in the ongoing expenditure review;
  
  
• The Comptroller General will provide overall leadership in ensuring that departments comply with Treasury Board policies for strong expenditure control and rigorous stewardship of public funds.  To help achieve this goal, the Comptroller General will be established as a distinct office in the Treasury Board Secretariat.  The Comptroller General will review and sign off on policy proposals to ensure that expenditure plans are sound. The Comptroller General, who has deputy head status, will report to the Secretary of the Treasury Board, and will be involved in the staffing of the Comptroller positions in departments and agencies, since Departmental Comptrollers will also have a functional reporting relationship to the Comptroller General;
  
  
• Departmental Comptrollers will be required to sign off on all departmental spending proposals before they are submitted to Cabinet for approval.  They will also receive thorough training to meet new credential requirements.  Targeted recruitment will be carried out to ensure that well qualified candidates serve as the government’s future financial managers;
  
  
• Ministers are expected to provide meaningful accountability and table informative reports in Parliament.  Deputy Ministers and departments will use the government’s recently released Management Accountability Framework to report to Treasury Board on their stewardship of public resources.  These reports will be published on departmental web sites;
  
  
• The responsibility for the Government-on-Line initiative has been transferred from the Treasury Board Secretariat to Public Works and Government Services Canada in order to achieve efficiency gains from the integration with the information technology and other services now provided by the department.  The Chief Information Officer (CIO) will play a challenge role in the Treasury Board Secretariat;
  
  
• The government is committed to modernizing the Public Service of Canada.  Bill C-25, the Public Service Modernization Act, which received Royal Assent in November 2003, will be implemented in a timely manner. In addition, a new Agency for Public Service Human Resources Management is being established under the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.  It will be responsible for managing the overall implementation of Bill C-25.  Consistent with the focussed mandate of the Treasury Board Secretariat, to provide oversight of government expenditures, all functions related to human resources management (except for collective bargaining and staff relations) currently carried out by the Treasury Board Secretariat are being transferred to the Agency;
  
  
• Following discussions with the public service unions, responsibility for collective bargaining and other staff relations activities will be transferred from the Treasury Board Secretariat to Public Works and Government Service Canada to reflect the need for a more collective approach to the management of the government’s human resources; and 
  
  
• To consolidate the responsibility for staff development and training programs under one Minister, the Canadian Centre for Management Development (soon to be renamed Canada School of Public Service under Bill C-25) will also report to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.  Training and Development Canada and Language Training Canada, now part of the Public Service Commission, will also be transferred to the Centre.