| Area to be Strengthened |
Status |
| I - Back to Basics |
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| FAA Compliance |
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- FAA Section 33 Compliance cells in the NCR have been augmented and have implemented a 3-pronged approach (pre-payment 250K+, pre-payment all high-risk, post-payment sampling).
- Quarterly non-compliance reports to L1s commenced for FY 04/05 (Jul 05).
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- Comptrollers are responsible for ensuring that all resource managers take the Expenditure Management Course (FAA Section 32/33/34) by 30 Jun 04 and have current certification thereafter.
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- Over 16,000 individuals have successfully completed the Expenditure Management Course. The signing authorities form is being amended to include verification of completion of the course in the annual signing authorities review.
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- All comptrollers have been directed to meet with their resource managers to review their FAA Sections 32 and 34 certification responsibilities.
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- Not all comptrollers reported on this item in their updates. This item will be confirmed in the Jan 05 CAP Update template.
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| Financial Attestations |
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- The C Fin O will review the Financial Management Attestation process, as well as the Framework.
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- This item is being actioned by DFPP with a completion target of end FY 05/06
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| Financial Officer Roles |
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- The C Fin O will review the finance functional direction, strengthen it where necessary and reissue it. In all matters related to this comptrollership Action Plan, finance functional direction will flow from the C Fin O to L1 Comptrollers.
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- On-going. The monthly Defence Comptrollership Council (DCC) meeting has proved to be a good forum for discussing CAP issues.
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| Commitment Accounting |
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- Commitment accounting for all KR/KR1 payments was introduced with the move to SAP4.7 in Nov 04. This item continues to be discussed at DCC, with a decision made in Dec 04 to include SWE starting 1 Apr 05.
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| II - Values and Ethics |
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- Reinforce values and ethics in all finance training and professional development
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- A workshop on the topic was included (and well-attended) at the annual National Comptrollers Training and Development Forum.
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- Develop and implement a code of ethics for the professional finance officer
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- Two draft codes have been developed and are the topic of much discussion within the DCC with more discussion to follow early in 2005.
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| III - Value for Money |
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| Reporting and Performance Measurement Tools |
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- Support TBS Implementation of PAA.
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- Significant work continues in support of PAA and MRRS, including data collection and input into EMIS.
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- A relational database is being developed, which integrates financial information with non-financial information.
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- A prototype of the Financial Planning Reporting and Capabilities Tool, which uses Cognos Power Play software, was demonstrated to L1 Comptrollers in Sep 04. The development phase of this tool ends in Mar 05.
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| Sustain and Upgrade the Departmental Financial System |
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- The Director Financial Accounting is currently in the process of managing a version upgrade of the software from version 4.02D to SAP’s Enterprise version 4.7. The FMAS upgrade to Enterprise is to follow a two-phased approach.
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- Phase A Upgrade to FMAS functionality occurred in Nov 04, with Phase B planned for FY 05/06.
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| Strategies, Policies and Systems |
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- DAB will coordinate the on-going work on accrual accounting implementation.
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- Work continues on the go-forward strategy (Appendix 4 to Strengthening Accountability Directive), with many issues addressed at an interdepartmental working group on accrual accounting.
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- The C Fin O will review the hospitality policy.
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- Feedback was provided to TBS on the new draft hospitality policy (Nov 04).
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- ComptSec is developing a training and development framework to support both military and civilian comptrollers and resource managers.
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- Work on the framework started with a national Training Needs Assessment (Oct 04) with follow-on work planned through the Comptrollership Training Working Group (CTWG).
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| Next Steps |
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- C Fin O will monitor implementation progress of the Comptrollership Action Plan and will report on all elements of the plan.
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- The Strengthening Accountability and Comptrollership in National Defence directive was released in Jun 04. The first progress reports from L1 Comptrollers were received in Oct 04. Further updates will be received on a quarterly basis, targeted to key action areas. Senior Management of the department will be kept aware of implementation progress through briefings which started in Apr 04 and were updated in Dec 04.
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