QAR: Best Practices Report

Issues Considered

The issues considered during the Step Two fieldwork were drawn in large part from Chapter 27 of the 1998 OAG Report, many of which were re-emphasized in their November 1999 Report. In Chapter 27, the OAG made several recommendations that are pertinent to WD; saying that Departments should:

1. ensure that projects funded in contribution programs represent value for money to both the applicant and the program;

2. apply the respective terms and conditions approved by the Treasury Board for its grant and contribution programs when assessing applications for funding;

3. document this assessment to provide proper justification for the decision to fund or not fund the project;

4. further clarify the objectives of the Programs by defining clear, attainable goals and expected annual results;

5. ensure that due diligence is exercised in the review and approval of grants and contributions under the Program;

6. ensure that recipients provide the required performance information;

7. obtain assurance that Programs exercise due diligence in selecting and managing projects;

8. set clear annual performance expectations for its contributions; and

9. assess performance annually.

The Preliminary Quality Assurance Review approach developed for Step One was revised for use in Step Two. Step One used a checklist developed for an initial assessment of a small set (15) of G&C program files. With the completion of this initial work, there was an opportunity to review the QAR Checklist, and the revision included in Appendix Two was used for the Step Two fieldwork. The broad issues considered by the fieldwork were as follows:

Due diligence: Demonstrated by reviewing and approving applications in a complete and appropriate manner and providing persuasive assessments based on relevant documentation to support decisions to approve assistance.
Clear, attainable objectives: That allow management to explain how recipients are expected to benefit from funding and to what end.
Performance against objectives is measured and reported: Ensure control, monitoring and evaluation of the funding effort and that funding is used for the purposes agreed.
Funds are managed in a responsible manner: Ensure that resources are used efficiently and that payments and repayments occur in a timely manner.

These issues represent coverage at the project, not program, level. By making that distinction, QAR does not consider program-level issues such as compliance with government or departmental priorities or overall program reporting (e.g. Annual Report, Performance Report, etc.). The schematic on the next page helps to put the QAR initiative in perspective, and place the issues covered by QAR relative to an overall project life-cycle.

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