The Centre of Excellence for Evaluation (CEE)
The Centre of Excellence for Evaluation (CEE) was officially established on
April 1st, 2001 as a result of the coming into force of the revised Evaluation
Policy that was approved by Treasury Board Ministers on February 1st, 2001.
As noted in the Policy, the primary mandate of the CEE is to provide
leadership, guidance and support to the practice of evaluation in the
government of Canada. As such, the CEE undertakes a number of activities to
foster community and capacity development and
ensure that a sufficient number of appropriately trained evaluation
professionals support policy implementation across government. The CEE also
develops and distributes a variety of tools
and guidance materials to support evaluation professionals and program
managers as they work to embed evaluation into management practices in
government departments and agencies subject to the Policy.
Related to externally focused activities, the CEE also has primary
responsibility within TBS for monitoring the capacity of evaluation in
government and for ensuring that evaluation results are used, where appropriate,
in decision-making at the centre.
Evolution of Evaluation in the Federal Government
Evaluation was officially introduced into the federal government in the late
70s to help improve management practices and controls. The 1977 Evaluation
Policy mandated that evaluation be a component of the management of each
department and organisation. It recognised program evaluation as an integral
part of the managerial responsibilities of deputy heads of departments and
agencies. Evaluation findings and recommendations were to be used by deputy
heads to make more informed decisions on management and resourcing, be
accountable for the programs for which they were responsible, as well as,
provide quality advice to ministers.
In 1981, the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) published the Guide
on the Program Evaluation Function to provide departments and agencies with
assistance in establishing and maintaining a program evaluation function.
A companion document entitled Principles
for the Evaluation of Programs by the Federal Departments and Agencies was
also published to provide direction and suggestions on how to carry out
evaluations. . These were later followed, in 1989, by the publication of Working
Standards for the Evaluation of Programs in Federal Departments and Agencies.
As a result of the continuous efforts to provide managers with the right
tools to manage for results, the OCG, in 1994 created an umbrella Review
Policy that brought internal audit and evaluation together under the same
policy and created a hybrid function - review. It brought together various
Treasury Board performance measurement and review requirements. It was
intended to support the principles of managing for results by emphasising the
responsibility of line managers for demonstrating performance and acting on
performance information as well as creating a productive alliance between
managers and review professionals.
A study of the evaluation function
was carried out in 2000 to re-examine the Review Policy in a modern management
environment. The study identified the need for a clear distinction between
internal audit and evaluation to better serve the needs of managers.
In February 2001 the Treasury Board approved a new Evaluation
Policy and Standards for the Government of Canada. The new policy has
separated the evaluation and internal audit functions as well as extended the
scope of evaluation to include programs, policies and initiatives. The new
policy focuses on results-based management and aims to embed the discipline of
evaluation into management practice.
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