Improving Management at PWGSC – An Overview

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) welcomes the first report of Mr. Justice Gomery on the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities.

The Government of Canada has responded thoroughly and vigorously to the urgent issues raised by the Auditor General about the Sponsorship Program. For example it:

cancelled the Sponsorship Program in 2003;
initiated criminal investigations with the RCMP;
is seeking to recover over $44 million from individuals and corporations, and will continue to investigate if more money can be recovered;
brought sanctions against a number of individuals.

In addition, PWGSC has taken decisive action to prevent such fraud in the future and respond to Canadians' expectations for sound management of their tax dollars. Four distinct areas have been improved:

Procurement practices: Fair, open and competitive procurement has long been at the heart of PWGSC's mandate. But for procurement to withstand the closest public scrutiny, it needs additional protection against real and perceived abuses. That's why we introduced a Contract Management Framework last fall. New and stricter measures have also been introduced for advertising and public opinion research procurement. We have enhanced the use of competitive sourcing and tightened controls across all commodities and services. And we recently introduced a Code of Fair Contract Practices which will further strengthen the integrity of the contracting process.

Accountability: Canadians expect that Ministers and senior managers should know how much money is being spent on programs, what those programs are supposed to accomplish and whether or not they are working. And they should be able to spot problems early and fix them. This is the essence of accountability. Since 2002, PWGSC has led a massive effort to overhaul its management practices so that employees at all levels operate in a framework of true accountability. More specifically, we have clarified accountabilities across the department, instituted a thorough business planning process, adopted rigorous methods of financial management, created a system of independent checks and balances, implemented more effective controls and new ways to take remedial action following audits.

Transparency: Canadians rightly expect more transparency on the part of their public institutions. PWGSC is proud to participate in the government's efforts to make more information readily available to Canadians. This includes proactively disclosing information for travel and hospitality, on contracts over $10,000 issued by or on behalf of PWGSC, and information on reclassification of jobs. We are also making great strides in improving our performance with regard to Access to Information requests and reporting to Parliament.

Ethics: A strong culture of ethics is fundamental to everything we do. It systematically reinforces and safeguards our push toward greater accountability and transparency. We have had an ethics program for some time. We are building on that program. We introduced a Ten Point Integrity Plan that includes an expanded role for our Audit, Assurance and Ethics Committee, the appointment of Ethics Officers in each Branch and Region, and linking integrity to performance pay for executives and managers. We've made good progress on all ten points.

PWGSC is a vast department with a proud history of serving Canadians professionally and with integrity. We have taken steps to preserve that heritage by transforming the way we do business to better respond to the expectations of Canadians. PWGSC is now well positioned – in fact, we have already begun – to deliver on The Way Forward agenda announced last fall: an agenda to deliver better value for Canadians' hard-earned tax dollars and to save billions of dollars in procurement, real property and IT services.