Steering Committee on follow-up to Operational Review

Mandate

In October 2005, the Centre for Public Management was given the task of performing an operational review of procedures within the Office of the Ethics Commissioner.  The purpose of this review was to assess the Office of the Ethics Commissioner (OEC) for Canada’s operating practices related to its conflict of interest responsibilities for Members of the House of Commons (MP) and Public Office Holders (POH). This was to be done in terms of their efficiency, appropriateness in relation to the OEC mandate, consistency of application, and quality management approaches; to identify opportunities for improvement and to recommend steps that could be taken over the short and medium-terms.  The approach used by the Centre for Public Management was designed to provide a reasonable, but not absolute, level of assurance about the appropriateness of OEC operating practices. 

Key Recommendations

• Define a strategic direction for the OEC

  –        Develop a strategic OEC Mission and Vision
  –        Define OEC core values
  –        Rebalance efforts to ready the OEC to meet its future challenges

• Develop a strategic risk profile

  –        Identify risks to OEC mandate, governance and stewardship objectives
  –        Define the appropriate balancing of constituent group requirements

• Address people management tensions

  –        Management and staff jointly identify strategies towards increased delegation and commensurate accountability
  –        Encourage a continuous learning environment

  ›        Training plan
  ›        Timely feedback on decisions taken
  ›        360 performance reviews 

• Re-align responsibilities, reduce bureaucracy and professionalize processes

  –        Define, standardize and document methodologies for OEC investigations and application of conflict standards
  –        Design and conduct a survey of MP/POH to determine

  ›        Satisfaction levels
  ›        Timeliness of advice
  ›        Suggested areas for improvement

• Introduce methods to measure and report on performance

  –        More strategic annual reporting

• Adopt an ‘electronic work paper package’ approach to managing OEC information (e.g., PWC’s TeamMate solution)

  –        File sharing
  –        Quality Management modules
  –        Electronic templates

• Design and launch a formal transition effort, properly governed, with performance targets and monitoring, to ensure these recommendations are acted upon

Follow-up

Following the Operation Review, a Steering Committee was created.  The mandate of the Steering Committee on Follow-up to Operational Review is to:

• establish priorities and provide general direction to project teams;
• serve as a forum to discuss and resolve issues related to the projects, and their impact office-wide;
• ensure that projects are on track;
• obtain necessary approvals to move forward (e.g. funding for contracts);
• report progress to Senior Management Group and staff on a regular basis.

Its membership consists of Annie Plouffe, Jocelyne Brisebois, Lyne Robinson-Dalpé and Stephen Tsang (Chair).

Five projects are identified:

›        “Chase and Breach”
›        Life cycle assignment of files
›        Streamlining of delegation of authority
›        Information Technology-related
›        Merger of the Executive and Legislative Affairs Branches