NRTEE Modern Management Action Plan

Modern Management Action Plan

Introduction

The federal government is undergoing rapid and significant change in the way it operates and manages itself. The challenges of allocating resources, getting better value for money, strengthening accountability among other challenges, led the government to search for improved management practices. Modern comptrollership is a major initiative to modernize management practices across the federal government and follows the recommendations set out in the Report of the Independent Review Panel on Modernization of Comptrollership in the Government of Canada. As indicated in this report, the government will have successfully modernized management practices when managers and organizations integrate these improved practices into their everyday management, and demonstrate a strong capacity to use quality information in decision-making.

This Modern Management Action Plan lays out the actions the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy intends to carry out in order to strengthen management practices in those priority areas identified during the agency's Modern Comptrollership Capacity Assessment.

Background

In June 2001, the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, President of the Treasury Board, announced that, following a three-year pilot phase, the Modern Comptrollership initiative was extended to all federal departments and agencies. As the NRTEE had already identified the need to strengthen some of its management practices, the agency seized on this initiative in order to make these improvements in a systematic and disciplined fashion. With funding and support provided by TBS, the NRTEE established a modern comptrollership project management office in the fall of 2001. This enabled the agency to manage and adapt the modern comptrollership tools and implementation approach to the unique size and culture of the NRTEE.

Modern Comptrollership is one of the government's key priorities. It is a management reform focused on the sound management of resources and effective decision-making. It goes to the heart of the Government of Canada's management framework as described in Results for Canadians. This framework outlines the need for departments and agencies to commit to excellence in four key areas: citizen-focused, values driven, results oriented and responsible spending. In other words, they must be focused on meeting the needs of Canadians. In order to do this, they need to apply sound public service values and place significant emphasis on managing for results and spending responsibly.

Modern Comptrollership is a progressive step on the continuum of management improvement in the federal government, which is necessary because of increased demands by Canadians for greater accountability, more relevance, and enhanced value-for-money from government policies and programs.

Modern comptrollership is about ensuring that the current and future generations of federal public service managers are equipped with the requisite skills, competencies and understanding of their roles and responsibilities to function effectively in this environment and that they are well supported by their organizations in terms of the following four pillars and three enablers of modern comptrollership.

Pillars of Modern Comptrollership

Shared Values and Ethics support a regime of democratic, professional and organizational and personal values that result in ethical behaviour, attitudes and decisions. Shared values will be instrumental in supporting open, accessible, values-driven and results-oriented operations.

Integrated Performance Information combine the most critical financial and non-financial data and appropriate advice in support of decision-making, results management and reporting.

Mature Risk Management is composed of a comprehensive framework that is integrated into planning, decision-making and monitoring.

Rigorous Stewardship includes responsibilities to safeguard public assets, to develop, operate and support key control systems, management processes, infrastructure, standards and measures of success.

Enablers of Modern Comptrollership

Strategic Leadership refers to the commitment of creating and sustaining a climate for change that fosters the integration of Modern Comptrollership concepts for day-to-day decision-making. Ministers and Public Servants share responsibility for this type of leadership that will result in the integration of values, people and results.

Motivated People focuses on establishing a Public Service workplace that is learning, challenging and rewarding environment, where employees exercise key competencies and skills to achieve expected results.

Clear Accountability involves closer links with the community, increased transparency and public confidence in accountability.

NRTEE Commitment and Governance

On September 21, 2001, the NRTEE's President and Chief Executive Officer confirmed in writing to the Comptroller General of Canada the agency's commitment to implementing the Modern Comptrollership Initiative. Following this commitment, in the fall of 2001, the Round Table established a project management office to oversee and guide implementation of the Modern Comptrollership Initiative.

The NRTEE received funding from TBS to support the hiring of an independent consultant to manage this office on a part-time basis. The Round Table's Corporate Secretary and Director of Operations is responsible for the oversight of the project management office and provides overall direction for implementation of this initiative. The project management office provides progress updates to the Corporate Secretary and Director of Operations on an ongoing basis and all NRTEE modern comptrollership reports and strategies are reviewed and approved by him prior to release or implementation. NRTEE staff is kept informed and involved with priority action plan items through specific training events and updates at monthly staff meetings.

The NRTEE has shown leadership on this initiative within the small agency community, a community comprised of over 65 federal departments and agencies. The Corporate Secretary and Director of Operations is a member of the Small Agencies Modernization Council. The NRTEE is also leading a TBS Innovations Fund Performance Measurement project involving the Canadian Transportation Agency and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. This project is designed to develop effective and efficient tools and approaches to measure performance within small federal agencies with very different mandates.

NRTEE Modern Management Action Plan Objectives

The key objectives of the NRTEE Modern Management Action plan are:

In the summer of 2002, the NRTEE undertook a capacity assessment designed to provide the agency with a baseline assessment of current management practices and to identify opportunities for improvement. This was a self-assessment process based on the TBS' KPMG Capacity Check tool comprised of 33 elements under the 7 broad areas explained above, namely:

The capacity assessment process highlighted management strengths as well as areas requiring improvement. The summary in Figure 1 indicates that the NRTEE is particularly strong in the areas of Strategic Leadership, Shared Values and Ethics and Rigorous Stewardship with further work required to strengthen management practices in the areas of Mature Risk Management, Motivated People and Integrated Performance Information.

The Modern Management Action plan is built on the findings and opportunities identified during the capacity assessment process. The following chart in Figure 2 outlines the detailed results that make up each of the 7 areas summarized in Figure 1.

The NRTEE's capacity assessment process generated enthusiasm and buy-in from middle management and front line staff. It also further strengthened senior management's commitment to move forward and address areas and opportunities for improvement. Following this process, senior management identified priorities for improvement, with the objective of addressing all areas requiring further improvement within an 18-month time frame.

The chart in Figure 3 outlines the Action Plan to address NRTEE's priority areas for improvement. This chart outlines the specific NRTEE management initiatives, the related planned activities, the linkage to the capacity assessment elements and the priority ranking (high -completed or well underway between Fall 2002 to Spring 2003 and medium - well underway or completed between Spring 2003 and Spring 2004). This chart also details who is responsible for each initiative/planned activity and the related timeframe.

As previously noted, the chart in Figure 3 is intended to illustrate NRTEE's plan to address the priority areas for improvement identified through the agency's capacity assessment. To this end, the plan covers 29 (or 88%) of the 33 capacity assessment elements. The following summary outlines the rationale for not specifically covering the remaining 4 elements in this Action Plan:

In order to effectively manage and report on the NRTEE's Modern Management Action Plan, specific performance indicators will be developed for the Management Initiatives and Planned Outcomes. NRTEE's project management office will monitor progress on an ongoing basis. Progress reports will be provided to senior management on a monthly basis and more frequently as required. The Corporate Secretary and Director of Operations will provide progress reports to the NRTEE's President and CEO on a bi-annual basis and more frequently as required. The NRTEE will also provide Treasury Board (TBS) with progress reports on an annual basis and more frequently as requested or required to keep the central agency abreast of key issues. The NRTEE will also report key management improvement plans and expected results in the agency's Report on Plans and Priorities. Results achieved, or progress towards results, will be reported in the Round Table's Departmental Performance Report.