Appendix C1 - Benchmark Index by Function - Leading Projects

Executive Group Benchmark Number: 7-G-1

POSITION TITLE: Executive Director, Modern Comptrollership Initiative

GENERAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Is accountable for providing strategic corporate leadership and direction across the Public Service for a multifaceted project to implement the Modern Comptrollership Initiative, which is aimed at creating more effective management tools and processes to improve federal government decision making, public policy development and service delivery to Canadians.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

This is one of five positions at the second managerial level reporting to the Associate Deputy Comptroller General. The other positions are Executive Director, Results, Measurement and Reporting; Executive Director, Risk Management; Executive Director, Procurement and Project Management; and Executive Director, Real Property and Materiel Policy.

Specific responsibilities of the four positions reporting to the Executive Director, Modern Comptrollership Initiative, are as follows:

Director, Integration, Communications and Committees Support, (staff of 3) is responsible for coordinating the participation of central agencies and departments to sustain government-wide momentum and engagement in the Modern Comptrollership Initiative; coordinating the activities of senior-level management committees; developing and initiating communications strategies, products and services to promote and gain support for modern comptrollership; establishing and promoting a government-wide corporate repository for best practices; and overseeing an assigned portfolio of client departments to ensure better integration of modern comptrollership practices among those departments.

Director, Capacity Building and Reporting, (staff of 3) is responsible for identifying and embedding competencies in a comprehensive human resources development strategy; establishing networks and linkages with government and public and private sector institutions to access their expertise to enhance the capacity-building process; developing results frameworks, performance targets and tracking mechanisms; reporting annually on performance in order to advise senior management and Treasury Board ministers on continuing progress; and overseeing an assigned portfolio of client departments to ensure better integration of modern comptrollership practices among those departments.

Director, Policy and Innovation, (staff of 3) is responsible for identifying, analysing and developing approaches to address new and outstanding modern comptrollership implementation issues and associated funding requirements; managing the Innovation Fund established to support project implementation; addressing and resolving policy issues vital to the success of the project; conducting research and analysis to identify modern comptrollership approaches and initiatives in other domestic and foreign jurisdictions for possible incorporation into the Canadian model; and overseeing an assigned portfolio of client departments to ensure better integration of modern comptrollership practices among those departments.

Director, Departmental Liaison, (staff of 3) is responsible for providing overall support to the Executive Director in the internal coordination of all project management work; directing the horizontal coordination and management of liaison activities by project portfolio account managers with the departmental Phase I and II participants; and leading the development and implementation of special governance structures and project initiatives for smaller departments.

NATURE AND SCOPE

As an administrative arm of the Treasury Board, the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) has a dual mandate to support the Treasury Board as a committee of Cabinet and to fulfill the statutory responsibilities of a central agency. The TBS sets policy and provides strategic advice and support to Treasury Board ministers and government organizations, as part of its responsibility for ensuring value for money and overseeing the financial and general management functions in departments and agencies. The Modern Comptrollership Initiative plays a fundamental role in bringing about a shift in management culture, improving decision-making and public policy, and achieving more effective citizen-centred service delivery.

As the head of the Modern Comptrollership Initiative, the Executive Director provides strategic direction, advice and support to departments and agencies to assist them with their strategic planning and implementation activities for this major federal corporate management policy initiative.

The Executive Director is responsible for meeting all project objectives within three years. Two major challenges for the incumbent are transferring the ownership of the principles of modern comptrollership from the centre to every part of the Public Service; and forging partnerships among stakeholders to ensure the long-term sustainability and success of this initiative. These challenges require the incumbent to ensure that this initiative is embedded in every government organization. Doing so requires the buy-in of all key participants and an effective change in management attitudes at all levels of the Public Service.

The Executive Director is responsible for determining and recommending the project's scope, resource requirements and budget; selecting the project team members; developing the project management methodologies and plans, as well as the project governance framework and communications strategy; and providing overall project leadership and direction for this government-wide initiative. The incumbent is also responsible for the project close-down phase. A particular challenge is to ensure the embedding of new comptrollership management practices involving significant cultural change in more than 100 departments and agencies, within the three-year period.

The Executive Director is responsible for establishing the government-wide reporting framework, including a suite of success indicators and desired outcomes; and for developing annual reporting mechanisms to the central agencies, Treasury Board ministers and Parliament.

The Executive Director is responsible for developing and maintaining a wide range of consultative and intelligence networks and communications programs with senior officials, as well as with the management and comptrollership communities at large, to ensure that strategic communications messages, information products and services are disseminated to all stakeholders. A challenge for the Executive Director is to ensure that these communications are linked effectively, in an integrated and mutually supportive manner, with overall TBS communications strategies and messages on Public Service renewal. The Executive Director is responsible for directing strategic support for and providing secretariat services to a number of senior-level committees, including a Committee of Deputy Ministers, responsible for providing oversight and strategic direction; a Standards Advisory Board, consisting mainly of private sector experts who provide technical advice on the comptrollership standards being proposed; and a Comptrollership Council of Assistant Deputy Ministers, which provides internal government advice on the adoption of modern comptrollership standards and management frameworks in the Public Service. To ensure success, the incumbent must gain acceptance and increased engagement from all key stakeholders.

The Executive Director is the overall approval authority for the administration of the $30 million Innovation Fund, established to provide departments and agencies with funding for research, professional development, special projects and studies to improve their overall modern comptrollership processes, practices, tools and systems. The incumbent is accountable for directing the screening, approval, monitoring, evaluation and regular reporting on the Fund's use by departments and agencies. A particular challenge for the Executive Director is to persuade participants to co-fund initiatives by leveraging funding from the Innovation Fund with financial resources obtained from departments and agencies.

The Executive Director is challenged to exercise leadership when representing the TBS's interests and policy position in dealing with client departments and agencies. The development of modern comptrollership policy and management practices requires the incumbent to evaluate and reconcile divergent interests, such as individual departments' views on the nature and appropriateness of required changes. Ultimately, the Executive Director's policy advice and recommendations have an impact on the effective use of government resources and on the quality of services provided by all government organizations to Canadians.

The Executive Director is responsible for representing the federal government and the TBS and chairs meetings, committees and working groups with senior officials from internal and external client, partner and stakeholder organizations in order to promote and advance the positions of the TBS and the government on the Modern Comptrollership Initiative. As a member of the Comptrollership Branch Executive Committee, the incumbent is expected to make a significant contribution to the Branch's culture, philosophy, strategic and business priorities, and overarching policy and management accountability frameworks.

DIMENSIONS (Constant Dollars)

FTEs:	18
Operating budget:	$0.3 million
Innovation Fund:	$1.6 million
Portfolio department and agency program expenditures:	$23 billion

SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Leads the Modern Comptrollership Initiative Project Office in order to provide a corporate focal point in articulating and promoting policies, principles and practices to enhance the federal government's decision-making, public policy capacity, and service delivery to Canadians.
2. Leads the development of capacity building and corporate reporting strategies and frameworks to ensure that the principles and goals of modern comptrollership are embedded in the government management community and to ensure effective reporting on the progress of the implementation of modern comptrollership in the Public Service.
3. Develops communications strategies, frameworks and strong consultation networks with officials in the public and private sectors to reinvigorate the commitment to the Modern Comptrollership Initiative policy across the federal government and to actively expand the initiative to engage 104 large and small departments and agencies.
4. Acts as the catalyst to integrate the agendas and align the strategies of the various branches and sectors of the TBS and other central agencies, such as the Privy Council Office, the Office of the Auditor General, Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Canada School of Public Service, to ensure a coordinated and more focussed approach to the Initiative across all of these organizations.
5. Directs the provision of authoritative support and services to key modern comptrollership committees and other executive management groups to ensure the effective development, rollout and monitoring of the Modern Comptrollership Initiative.
6. Develops strong consultation networks with all stakeholder groups and provides consulting and support services to the portfolio of departments and agencies to engage these groups in the development of the policy frameworks, tools and processes in order to enhance and support the implementation of modern comptrollership across the federal Public Service.
7. Manages the Innovations Fund to leverage resources from departments in order to improve their capacity to implement modern comptrollership and to fund special projects established to enhance the Initiative and support its sustainability.
8. Leads the close-down phase of the Initiative and ensures that all policy frameworks, systems and other requirements are in place to ensure the long-term success of modern comptrollership.

EVALUATION RATIONALE

Executive Director, Modern Comptrollership Initiative

KNOW-HOW

G	Mastery of the concepts, theories and techniques of modern comptrollership policy planning and evaluation; in-depth professional knowledge of and skill in project management to implement a large, government-wide management initiative; extensive knowledge of comptrollership concepts, techniques and practices; and in-depth skill and knowledge in managing large and complex, government-wide projects, and in providing strategic policy advice up to the Deputy Minister level.
III	Operational coordination and guidance of a strategic policy function that affects the entire federal Public Service.
3	Successful achievement of objectives requires motivating client departments and agencies, other central agencies and project staff; developing effective relationships with peer organizations and superiors; and influencing stakeholder groups and senior officials to achieve stated objectives.
700	Mid-range number indicates the solid degree of expertise required to manage a large, complex project focussed on related activities and reflects the specialized expertise required to coordinate and implement a key government initiative across the Public Service.

PROBLEM SOLVING / THINKING

F	Thinking is done within a general frame of reference of legislative and government-wide directions from the Treasury Board and the Privy Council Office in planning and developing policies, implementing new management practices and tools, and making recommendations regarding management practices in government departments.
4	Analytical and constructive thought is required in interpreting and solving multi-dimensional problems, developing policies and proposing innovative comptrollership management practices involving many diverse organizations.
(57) 400	Higher percentage indicates a tendency toward the uncharted, given the broad nature of direction, the complexity of situations across government, and the need to reconcile the divergent interests of a wide variety of stakeholders in policy development and in accepting new management processes.

ACCOUNTABILITY / DECISION MAKING

F	Reporting to the Associate Deputy Comptroller General, acts within functional policies and goals under general direction to provide recommendations on the management practices and performance measurement systems affecting over 100 client departments, Crown corporations and federal institutions.
7I	The position has an indirect impact on comptrollership management across the federal government. The proxy selected to represent this impact is the overall federal expenditures management system of $23 billion (constant).
460	Low number reflects the parameters of the project and the remoteness of impact over the proxy selected.

SUMMARY

GIII3

700

F4(57)

400

F7I

460

=

1560

A1

DIRECTOR GENERAL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

MODERN COMPTROLLERSHIP INITIATIVE
NUMBER: 7 - G - 1