Circular No.: 1995-3
Date: July 13, 1995
To: Deputy heads of departments and heads
of agencies
Subject: Reduction of administrative overhead
and paper burden related to Treasury Board submissions
Summary
This circular outlines new initiatives to improve
management and accountability by decreasing the administrative
overhead and paper burden of departments, including a reduction
in minor and technical submissions to the Treasury Board.
Background
The changes announced in this circular reflect
the ongoing commitment of the Treasury Board and its Secretariat
to reducing overhead and paper burden. The Secretariat is working
to make sure that policies take into account the potential
savings in removing unneeded controls. It recognizes that, in
addition to savings, better service can result from giving
departmental management more flexibility. The Board will
introduce more changes like those in this circular as its policy
review progresses.
Application
It applies to all departments as defined in the Financial Administration Act, Section 2: (a), (b), and (d)
and to the National Capital Commission regarding items 2(iii) and
(iv) in the appendix to this circular.
Implementation
These changes are effective June 8, 1995.
Details
The details appear in an appendix to this
circular.
Treasury Board Manual
These policy changes and new authorities will be
incorporated into the appropriate volume of the Manual.
Enquiries
Please direct requests for more information or
clarification about the topics in this circular to the following
organizations of the Treasury Board Secretariat:
- on contracting and government contracts policy and
regulations to the Contracting Management Group, Financial and
Information Management Branch, (FIMB);
- on capital projects and major Crown projects to the Projects,
Procurement and Risk Management Group, FIMB;
- on cash management to the Financial Management Policy
Division, FIMB;
- on blanket authorities for the approval of pension benefits
and on the Public Service Employment Act to the Human
Resources Branch;
- on materiel management, real property, grants, contributions
and other transfer payments, non-controversial items in a
Supplementary Estimates submission, handling of Orders in
Council, the remission of taxes and penalties, the Prairie
Farm Rehabilitation Act, Vote 5 paylist shortfalls,
and Treasury Board policy rationalization to your department's
program analyst in the Program Branch; and
- on the Treasury Board Secretariat's strategic policy and
program monitoring system to the Evaluation, Audit, and Review
Group, FIMB.
R. J. Giroux
Secretary of the Treasury Board and Comptroller
General of Canada
Attachment Lists:
T004,T005,T006,T007,T008,T009,T010,T011,T012,T013,T022,T023,T024,T161,
TBO5, TBO6, TBO7, TB10
This appendix provides a description of the
changes effective June 8, 1995.
Policy amendments
The Board approved the following nine policy
amendments.
- It raised contracting thresholds in three departments, the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), National Film
Board (NFB), and Revenue Canada, to signal that the government
supports more open competition.
-
- CIDA: for competitive aid contracts: "entry into" from
$4 million to $10 million, and "amendments to" from $2 million to
$5 million.
- NFB: for contracts for producer services in making films from
$100,000 for "entry into" and $25,000 for "amendments to" to
$250,000 for "entry into and amendments to" combined.
- Revenue Canada: for competitive contracts for printing using
the Open Bidding Service for "printing": "entry into" from
$400,000 to $1 million, and "amendments to" from $200,000 to
$500,000.
- It increased departmental approval authorities for capital
projects below an appropriate limit.
-
This removes the requirement for departments to
seek Treasury Board authority, except when the Board specifically
requests them to do so for capital projects below an appropriate
limit. For departments with separate capital votes, this should
generally be around $20 million or 10 per cent of their capital
budget, whichever is smaller; for departments that do not have
separate capital votes, the threshold would be $3 million.
The Board will examine authorities department by
department at the first opportunity with a view to approving a
long-term capital plan or reviewing a Business Plan.
To give the Treasury Board the opportunity to
request submissions below these levels, departments must briefly
describe prospective capital projects costing above an
appropriate floor (i.e., generally $2 to 5 million for
departments with capital votes and $1 million for others) in an
annex to their Business Plans. Based on this information, the
Secretariat will recommend to the Board which, if any, projects
require a submission seeking preliminary, or some other form, of
approval. The following criteria will have major influences on
the Secretariat's recommendations: whether a department has a
sufficiently viable and accurate long-term capital plan; whether
it has an appropriate internal approval process; and whether the
project entails significant government-wide risks or touched on
the interests of other departments.
If a department did not identify a prospective
project in its Business Plan and the project cannot wait until
the next Plan, it must ask the Secretariat to determine whether a
submission is required.
- It has delegated authority to the appropriate ministers to
approve certain technical changes and exceptions to the terms and
conditions governing grants, contributions, and other transfer
payments.
-
- Authority to amend terms and conditions previously approved
by the Treasury Board except for:
- the program objectives of the grant(s) or
contribution(s);
- the identification of the recipient or definition of the
class of eligible recipients;
- basic financial parameters (e.g., the total amount payable
under a class of contributions if applicable or the total amount
payable annually if applicable);
- the maximum amount payable to any recipient;
- all conditions under which a contribution is repayable;
and
- any conditions that the Treasury Board specifies may not be
changed without its approval.
- Authority to extend the applicability of terms and conditions
for up to one year as long as the fiscal consequences stay within
the department (i.e., no adjustments to reference levels
required).
- All amendments to terms and conditions made under authorities
delegated to the appropriate ministers must be consistent with
government and Treasury Board policies.
- Authority to approve exceptions to the maximum amount payable
to any recipient up to 25 per cent in excess of the maximum
amount approved by the Treasury Board as long as any such
exceptions are consistent with government policies and Cabinet
policy decisions and the fiscal implications stay within the
department.
- Departments must: consult the Secretariat about whether
Treasury Board approval is needed before implementing changes
under these delegations; and inform the Secretariat in writing of
any amendments or exceptions approved under these provisions
within one month after the appropriate minister has approved
them.
-
- Departments may seek approval for Vote 5 paylist
shortfalls by a letter from their senior financial officer to the
director of the Estimates Division of the Treasury Board
Secretariat, which would then seek approval annually from the
Treasury Board through an aide-mémoire.
- Departments may include non-controversial technical items
(e.g., year-end vote transfers, increases in appropriations
required solely to comply with the policy on accounting for
non-monetary transactions ) in a Supplementary Estimates
submission without the Board's prior authorization if a
Secretariat official at the director leve
- l or above has agreed to it beforehand.
- The Treasury Board Secretariat must ensure that current
procedures in the Treasury Board Submissions Guide (part of the Treasury Board Manual) for handling Orders in Council
authorizing federal-provincial agreements are carried out in
order to limit the Board's involvement to substantive issues or
to where it has to make recommendations before the Order may go
to the Privy Council Office.
- The Board amended its Materiel Management Policy as
follows.
-
- It amended the policy statement to include the
following:
-
"Departments provide employees with materiel
required to carry out their work in an efficient, economic,
productive, and safe manner."
- It amended the policy requirements to include the
following:
"Automated information systems and supporting
technology must be used to manage materiel resources and materiel
management functions when investments are cost-effective and can
improve the materiel management function.
The full cost of inventories (purchasing and
holding costs) must be visible and distributed to the
end-user.
Furniture, materiel, and equipment must be
provided to employees in an equitable manner consistent with the
services being provided."
- It directed the Treasury Board Secretariat to ensure, as
specified in the policy, that progress reports on major Crown
projects are submitted only at key events or milestones.
- The annual submission of the cash management report by
Treasury Board Secretariat is discontinued, and correspondingly,
departments are no longer required to submit cash management
information annually to Treasury Board for that purpose.
Legislative and regulatory amendments
The Treasury Board invites the appropriate
ministers, if the opportunity presents itself, to put forward the
following legislative and regulatory amendments.
- Change sections 23 (1) and 23 (2) of the Financial
Administration Act (FAA) dealing with the remission of taxes
and penalties as follows:
-
- amend section 23, as appropriate, to remove the requirement
for the Treasury Board to recommend the approval of Orders in
Council authorizing the remission of premium payments into the
Unemployment Insurance Account, the Canada Pension Plan, or any
similar government program; and
- introduce, pending an opportunity to amend the Act,
streamlined procedures for seeking the Board's approval of these
Orders in Council -- specifically, to process these submissions
in the routine way (i.e., only the front page of the submission
and the Order itself would be included in ministers' books; there
would be no précis) and that departments use a very brief form
for these submissions.
- Change the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act to
remove anachronistic requirements for the Board's approval of
threshold limits as follows:
- amend section 9 to remove the requirement for the Treasury
Board to approve any project or scheme under the Act involving an
expenditure of more than $15,000 in any fiscal year by deleting
the sub-section that reads "No single project or scheme under
sub-section (1) involving an expenditure in excess of fifteen
thousand dollars in any fiscal year shall be undertaken without
the consent of the Treasury Board."
-
- Amend the National Capital Act and Government
Contracts Regulations to give the NCC comparable flexibility
to other Crown corporations.
Alternative 1: Introduce legislative
change and a consequential amendment to the Government
Contracts Regulations as follows:
- eliminate subsection 15(3) of the National Capital Act (NCA) and make a consequential amendment to the Regulations
(i.e., remove the NCC from the definition of "contracting
authority" on page B-3). As a result the NCC would no longer be
subject to the Regulations and would not have to seek the Board's
approval to enter into, or amend, any of its contracts.
Alternative 2: Introduce new regulations
under the NCA and FAA and a consequential amendment to the Government Contracts Regulations as follows:
- introduce regulations under subsections 15(3) of the National Capital Act and 41(1) of the FAA with a
consequential amendment to the Regulations (i.e., remove the NCC
from the definition of "contracting authority"). As a result the
NCC would be subject to its own contracts regulations.
-
- Amend the National Capital Act (Real Property) to
give the NCC the latitude to enter into real property
transactions without the approval of the Governor in Council as
follows:
- amend section 15 to eliminate the requirement for
Governor-in-Council approval of real property transactions and to
delegate to the Treasury Board the power to establish thresholds
beyond which transactions would require the Board's
approval.
-
- Amend section 46 of the Public Service Employment
Act (PSEA) to allow the Public Service Commission to
authorize persons to administer oaths and to take and receive
affidavits, declarations, and solemn affirmations for any
purposes of the PSEA or regulations made under it:
- Amend the Harbours Commissions Act (Real Property)
to give the Minister of Transport the authority to approve all
land leases as follows:
-
Amend section 15 (2) to remove the requirement to
seek Governor in Council authority to lease land for a term of
more than 25 years.
An amended section 15 would delete
sub-section (2)(b) and amend sub-section (a) to provide the
Minister of Transport with the authority to approve all
leases.
- Amend section 27 (1) of the Public Harbours and Ports
Facilities Act (Real Property) to remove the requirement for
the department to seek the authority of the Governor in Council
to lease land for a term of more than 25 years.
Blanket authorities for approving pension benefits
-
The Board has granted the following blanket
approvals under the Public Service Superannuation
Act:
- payment of pension benefits in misconduct cases;
- validating elections for prior pensionable service;
and
- authorizing the President of the Treasury Board to enter
into reciprocal pension transfer agreements.
Contentious or unusual situations will continue
to be referred to the Board to prevent an individual's rights
from being prejudiced.
Policy rationalization
The Board has approved the continuation of the
review of its policy instruments to ensure that they focus on
results, give departments more flexibility, and clarify the scope
of the Board's accountability.
The initial review has resulted in the
cancellation of the following:
- the Furniture and Furnishings Policy;
- the Works of Art Policy; and
- the directive on Increased Ministerial Authority and
Accountability (IMAA).
The Treasury Board Secretariat's strategic policy and program
monitoring system
The Board approved the following three elements
of the system:
- a proactive risk-based monitoring capacity in individual
policy areas to ascertain whether the policy is the most
cost-effective instrument for achieving favourable results, and
to determine the extent to which those results are achieved;
- an evaluation, audit, and review function that analyses the
effectiveness of high-risk, strategically important programs and
that ascertains the effectiveness of existing monitoring systems;
and
- government-wide studies, when necessary, to examine urgent
government priorities such as the issue of year-end
spending.
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