ARCHIVED - MAF Assessment: Canadian Transportation Agency - 2008

1.1 Leadership: Acceptable

• Executive leadership regularly communicates and encourages ongoing dialogue on public service values and ethics among employees.

1.2 Infrastructure: Acceptable

• Organization has a plan that includes a strategy championed by senior management with medium-term activities to raise awareness of the importance of public service values and ethics.
• Risks in regard to possible breaches in public service values and ethics are regularly assessed, documented and followed up with mitigation plans and action by management.

1.3 Culture: Acceptable

• Managers and staff are encouraged to engage in values and ethics dialogue.
• Organization has a good understanding of the current state of public service values and ethics as evidenced by qualitative or quantitative information.

2.1 PAA Consistency: Acceptable

• The Strategic Outcome(s) is at a reasonable level given the nature and resources of the organization but this must be confirmed by appropriate indicators.

2.2 Measurability: Acceptable

• An inventory of programs has been developed and most of the listed programs meet the definition of a program.

2.3 Quality:

• An adequate and complete performance measurement framework is in place; however some minor issues still need to be resolved.
• The performance indicators are adequately clear and can usually be measured to provide reliable insight into program effectiveness.

3.1 Business Plan: Acceptable

• Corporate business plan generally integrates human resources, IM/IT, communications or other key corporate plans.
• Sector or branch business plans are generally aligned with the corporate business plan.

3.2 Governance Structure: Acceptable

• Adequate management oversight of the organization's program activities and underlying programs is evident.
• Organization's corporate governance structure is generally aligned to the organization's PAA.
• Recordkeeping is generally complete and current (minutes of meetings and records of discussion, decision, and follow-up).
• Resource reallocation is generally proactive when or where required.
• Senior corporate management structure (e.g., committees) interacts with and provides oversight to the supporting governance structure.
• Senior corporate management structure or subordinate governance structure (e.g., committees) meet regularly.
• Terms of reference are generally current and complete.

4.2 Participation in Priority Initiatives: Acceptable

• The organization contributes effectively to Public Service Renewal.

TBS has assessed the Canadian Transportation Agency with regards to its participation in Public Service Renewal - Acceptable.

6.1 Quality:

• GIVEN THE SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AND LIMITED RESOURCES OF SMALL ORGANIZATIONS, SMALL ORGANIZATIONS WERE NOT ASSESSED FOR MAF ROUND VI IN THE AREA OF QUALITY AND USE OF EVALUATION (AOM 6). SMALL ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD CONSULT THE NEW TREASURY BOARD POLICY ON EVALUATION (2009) FOR EVALUATION REQUIREMENTS IN 2009-10 AND FUTURE YEARS.

7.1 MRRS Basis: Acceptable

• DPR identifies any changes in plans; some discussion of how they affected performance may be present.
• RPP and DPR present a clear PAA (with crosswalks as necessary).

7.2 Credible information: Opportunity for Improvement

• DPR is based on the PAA, i.e. performance is usually reported by Program Activity (PA) at the PA level.
• Linkages between PA and Strategic Outcome (SO) level performance are generally made in the DPR.
• The DPR is concise. It contains an adequate amount of information relevant to the estimates process.

8.1 Change plan: Acceptable

• Comprehensive organizational change plan exists and matches the scope of change that has been identified.
• Established and robust capacity is in place to evaluate whether or not change is required.

8.2 Engagement: Acceptable

• Change management related training programs are available to some components of the organizations.
• Employees and stakeholders are actively engaged at all phases and are committed to advancing strategies and initiatives.
• Employees are engaged in the strategy development phase.
• Individual and organization-wide change-related training programs are available.

8.3 Assessment: Acceptable

• Change plans and strategies are included in Performance Management Agreements of Senior Executives.
• Change plans and strategies are priorities across the organization.

The Canadian Transportation Agency manages change well. The agency's change management agenda addresses key challenges such as workforce attrition and more complex cases; periodic reviews to assess whether the plan is meeting expectations; and identifies tasks and timeframes for completion.

9.1 Engagement: Acceptable

• Senior management has not reviewed the organization’s Risk Management approach within the current three-year planning cycle.
• Senior management ensures that the organization’s Risk Management approach is tailored to the specific needs of the organization.
• Senior management has not reviewed/approved the Corporate Risk Profile for over a year.
• Senior management encourages effective Risk Management and a risk-smart culture.
• Accountability for key risks is assigned to senior management.

9.2 Implementation: Acceptable

• The organization’s Risk Management approach is regularly communicated to staff and stakeholders.
• The Corporate Risk Profile is systematically (horizontally and vertically) implemented into most operational levels across the organization.
• Risk Management guidance and tools that enable the organization’s risk management approach are made available to staff.

9.3 Integration: Acceptable

• Risk information is adequately consulted for senior management decision-making.
• Risk information and Risk Management principles influence planning and resource allocation decisions.
• Operational level risks are prioritized into key risks.
• Risk information and Risk Management principles are adequately captured in senior management reporting.
• The organization makes adequate course corrections based on Risk Management performance and new information.

9.4 Continuous Improvement: Acceptable

• Some relevant external sources are consulted during the development of the organization’s CRP.
• Key risk information was adequately gathered from internal sources of the organization for preparing the CRP.
• The CRP provides a reliable assessment of the quality of risk information used.
• The organization adequately builds on past experience, better practice, and adjusts to fit any changes in management structures, priorities or strategic direction.

The organization is making steady progress in the ongoing development of its RM approach. Risk management is being increasingly integrated with CTA’s corporate planning. The documents comprising the RM approach are communicated with staff and stakeholders, and the CRP appears to be implemented into operational levels through the organization’s strategic plan and associated implementation plans.

10.1 Fair: Acceptable

• Organization is undertaking action to improve the classification program in accordance with its level of risk.
• Evidence shows that labour relations matters are consistently and appropriately managed/addressed.
• Evidence shows that the organization exceeds standards of timeliness in payments to employees.
• Evidence shows that the organization is in compliance with Labour Relations and Compensation Operations direction (terms and condition of employment, collective agreements and/or applicable legislation).

10.2 Enabling: Acceptable

• Organization demonstrates the necessary linguistic capacity to provide personal and central services and supervision in both official languages.
• Organization has made progress in comparison to the previous year's representation, recruitments and promotions of the four employment equity groups.
• Organization is under-representative in one or more of the four employment equity designated groups.
• Promotions among employment equity groups are greater than or equal to previous year's performance.
• Separations among employment equity groups are less than or equal to previous year's performance.
• Work instruments, electronic systems and communications with employees are always or nearly always available in both official languages.

10.3 Healthy and safe: Opportunity for Improvement

• A considerable number of employees do not feel recognized for positive performance.
• Evidence shows that the organization has an inadequately managed program to protect employees' occupational health and safety.

11.2 Principled: Acceptable

• Employees consider that they always or nearly always can communicate in the official language of their choice within their organization and work instruments, electronic systems and communications in both official languages are always or nearly always available.
• Organization is under-represented in one or more of the four employment equity designated groups.
• Progress against the previous year's performance on recruitment, promotion and separation for employment equity groups is less than the organization's average for all employees.
• Promotions among employment equity groups are less than representation for at least one group.
• Necessary linguistic capacity is in place as is shown by the vast majority of incumbents of bilingual positions who meet the language requirements of their position.
• Communications with and services to the public in both official languages are always or nearly always available.

11.3 Sustainable: Opportunity for Improvement

• Evidence indicates some human resources planning integrated with business planning exists.
• Support by means of governance/organizational infrastructure is not always present.

11.4 Adaptable: Acceptable

• A sufficient number of employees indicate their organization encourages continuous learning, improvement and innovation.

12.1 Governance: Acceptable

• IM requirements are integrated as a part of the approval, development, implementation, evaluation, and reporting of departmental policies, programs, services, or projects.
• IM is represented in the corporate-wide governance structure and/or in the corporate-wide governance or approval committee(s).
• Responsibilities are identified for IM policy development and implementation consistent with the GC IM Strategy and policy instruments.
• Participation is evident in GC-wide approaches and initiatives related to developing, implementing, sharing, and leveraging IM policies and practices.

12.2 Strategy: Opportunity for Improvement

• The IM strategy is in development but it is not clear how it supports departmental business priorities and operations nor how it integrates with other corporate strategies, plans, and planning cycles.
• A plan to implement the strategy is in development but it lacks timelines or resource estimates.
• IM awareness activities are underway in the department to help staff and executives understand their IM roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

12.3 Privacy Act: Opportunity for Improvement

• Significant collections of personal information under the control of the organization have not been appropriately identified or described in accordance with the Privacy Act.

12.4 Access to Information Act: Opportunity for Improvement

• A significant number of institution-specific Classes of Records do not meet Treasury Board Secretariat requirements.
• A significant number of the organization's functions, programs, activities and related information holdings have not been appropriately identified or described in its 2008 Chapter of Info Source: Sources of Federal Government Information. This information is a requirement of the Access to Information Act to facilitate public access to federal government information.

13.1 Leadership: Acceptable

• The senior official has responsibility and accountability for the full scope of information technology responsibilities and ensures that information technology supports organizational outcomes.
• Adequate participation in setting government-wide directions for information technology is evident.

13.2 Planning: Acceptable

• Acceptable information technology plan is in place that aligns with the government-wide directions for information technology and departmental business needs.
• Organization has aligned corporate and information technology governance structures and has an integrated planning process.

13.3 Value: Opportunity for Improvement

• Organization is making efforts to appropriately use and plan for further use of information technology shared services.
• Organization is developing service costing, asset management, performance measurement and reporting to ensure value delivery.

14.1 Investment Planning: Acceptable

• The organization’s investment planning process does not consider investments over multiple years.
• The investment planning process integrates investments decisions across all asset classes.
• Organizational priorities and areas of highest risk are identified and guide investment decisions.

14.3 Materiel Management: Acceptable

• All elements of a materiel management framework are evident.
• Governance structures, approval processes and authority limits are documented and disseminated.
• Comprehensive internal policies are documented and disseminated.
• Reliable and sufficiently integrated information systems are in place.

15.1 Governance and Oversight: Acceptable

• Business cases, which define expected outcomes, are required to support proposals for major projects.
• There is evidence of formal project governance and oversight mechanisms and that approved projects are generally linked with the strategic plans and priorities of the organization through established organization-wide procedures. Approval and corrective action decisions are documented.
• There is no evidence that the organization has exceeded Treasury Board approval limits.

15.2 Effective Management of Project Resources: Acceptable

• Adequate processes/procedures exist to ensure that planned projects have the required resources to achieve expected outcomes.
• There is no evidence that the organization has failed to meet TB conditions regarding projects.
• While project management related training is made available by the organization for employees, there are no processes to ensure that employees with project management responsibilities are encouraged to complete relevant training and the number of qualified project managers is unknown.

15.3 Effective Management of Project Results: Acceptable

• The organization requires that project milestones, deliverables and outcomes are documented for major projects.
• There is evidence of organization-wide procedures and processes which communicate project monitoring and performance information to project managers and project oversight mechanisms.
• There is evidence that the organization monitors project performance and uses this information to support corrective action.
• While lessons learned are used to improve project management governance and oversight in some instances, there is no formal or organization-wide mechanism which supports continuous improvement.

16.1 Governance and Oversight: Acceptable

• Effective and accountable procurement management processes and controls are in place (e.g., contract review mechanisms, documented decision making, guidance documents, appropriate delegation instruments or proper use of delegated authorities).

16.2 Meeting Operational Requirements: Acceptable

• Informed decision making and oversight exist.
• Procurement processes that contribute to cost savings and value for money are in use.
• Qualified procurement human resources exist.

Effective and accountable procurement management processes and controls are in place. Qualified procurement human resources exist. Informed decision making and oversight exist. Procurement processes that contribute to cost savings and value for money are in use.

17.1 Authorities and Policies: Opportunity for Improvement

• Audit report results show evidence of deficiencies that are of some concern.
• Departmental procedures, tools, training and support for those individuals delegated with Section 34 authority show evidence of deficiencies that are of serious concern.
• Departmental processes for classification of moneys, internal controls for receiving and recording money and depositing money show evidence of solid financial management practices.
• Departmental processes for informing those delegated with Section 33 authority of their responsibilities and dealing with requests for payments that are problematic show evidence of deficiencies that are of serious concern.
• Departmental processes to provide individuals delegated Section 33 authority with the information necessary to assess and approve transactions and to assess the adequacy of Section 34 account verification show evidence of good financial management practices.
• The reporting of external user fee information meets or nearly meets the requirements of the reporting guidelines.

17.2 Public Accounts Reporting: Strong

• Greater than 97% (Grade A) of Public Accounts plates completed on time.
• Minimal Central Financial Management Reporting System (CFMRS) coding errors.

17.3 Management Capacity: Acceptable

• A reasonable amount of training is provided for the financial management organization.
• All, or almost all, FIs and management team members in the financial management organization have current, approved learning plans.
• Few processes in support of a sound succession plan for key positions are in place.
• Positions, the duties of which are being performed by an individual indeterminately appointed to that position, comprise all, or almost all, of the FI segment of the financial management organization.
• Positions, the duties of which are being performed by an individual indeterminately appointed to that position, comprise all, or almost all, of the positions on the management team of the financial management organization.

17.4 Financial Statements: Acceptable

• "There is evidence of some work undertaken to assess and/or monitor and/or improve internal control over financial reporting."
• Minor areas of non-compliance with Treasury Board Accounting Standard 1.2 – Departmental and Agency Financial Statements and/or some non-compliance with reporting deadlines related to the submission of annual departmental financial statements.

17.5 Internal Reporting: Acceptable

• The internal financial reporting package is accompanied by a weak discussion and analysis.
• The internal financial reporting package is presented to senior management eight to nine times per year.
• The internal financial reporting package is presented to senior management less than one month after period end.
• The process for reviewing information before it is presented to senior management to ensure no material errors or omissions is established.
• The scope of the internal financial reporting package is reasonable.

While the agency received an overall rating of Acceptable, its compliance with financial legislative authorities and policies requires improvements.

The agency has created a supplemental Internal Audit Committee in addition to utilizing the Small Department and Agency Audit Committee (SDAAC).  The agency maintains a small internal audit function to provide audits additional to that of the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG).  The agency has an approved Corporate Risk Profile and a Risk-Based Audit Plan.

19.1 Departmental Security Program: Opportunity for Improvement

• Organization has a partially developed security program that contains some of the required policy elements.
• Some deficiencies in meeting key policy requirements for the departmental security program.

19.2 Management of IT Security (MITS): Attention Required

• Organization has not achieved the three priority objectives that form the foundation for Management of Information Technology Security (MITS).
• Several deficiencies in meeting key MITS requirements.
• (Priority Objective #1) Information Technology security fundamentals have not been put in place, including appropriate people, processes and strategies, an effective Information Technology security organization, and a risk management program.

19.3 Business Continuity Planning (BCP):

• Organization has conducted a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and has determined that it does not provide critical services to the public and private sectors.

Note: The assessment methodology for Line of Evidence 19.3 will be revised for MAF Round VII.  Please refer to the assessment for details.

20.1 Management Engagement – Service and CLF: Opportunity for Improvement

• There are limited expectations set by senior management for an institutional focus on meeting the needs of clients, specifically with respect to service standards and client satisfaction measurement.
• There are priorities and goals for service, but not always at the institutional level; these limited priorities and goals are set by senior management based on the use of limited performance evidence.
• There is a committee at the institutional level, composed of senior management accountable for service, which has a documented and communicated responsibility for making decisions about the overall management of service.
• There is limited monitoring of progress by senior management towards the achievement of the goals for service, making course correction difficult.
• There is little monitoring by senior management to ensure that the requirements of CLF 2.0 are being met institution-wide; there is limited information on which to make decisions and course correction.

20.2 Public/client views: Acceptable

• Evidence of incorporating feedback in the implementation of its services, programs, policies or initiatives.
• Few tools used to obtain views from clients.
• Little evidence of making consultation results available to the public.
• There are plans to obtain views from clients.
• There is a clearly identified target clientele for public consultations.

20.3 Official Languages: Strong

• Analysis of the Annual Review on OL shows the institution is fully meeting its obligations.
• No complaint or minimal number of founded complaints exits.
• The institution has the necessary linguistic capacity to serve the public in both OL.