Annual Reports to Parliament

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Annual Report to Parliament 2003-2004

Part Three  Corporate Services

Our path toward institutional renewal

It has been a challenging year for our Office due to the chain of events surrounding the resignation of the former Commissioner in June, 2003. A Parliamentary Committee inquiry, Auditor-General's report, a Public Service Commission investigation and numerous internal reviews and audits took time and energy from normal office functions. These audits and reviews highlighted that there had been a major breakdown of external governance and internal control processes at the OPC. In response, our Office has taken substantial steps to rebuild and renew the agency.

A series of corrective measures have been and continue to be taken to improve our office management framework and processes. These include:

• The appointment of two Assistant Commissioners and a Chief Financial Officer
• The establishment of an External Advisory committee of national privacy experts
• A Modern Comptrollership action plan has been submitted to Treasury Board
• Training in financial management policies, as well as Values and Ethics, has been provided to managers and staff
• Appointment of the Assistant Commissioner as OPC Values & Ethics Champion
• Development of a Human Resources strategy and action plan has been developed
• The establishment of Health & Safety and union-management consultation committees
• A Canada School of Public Service learning program is being implemented for staff

An important part of our internal renewal was the strategic planning process that was launched in January 2004. This was a transparent planning exercise with considerable staff involvement. The process established an overall framework for the development of OPC strategies, and key actions for the fiscal year 2004-2005. The resulting strategic framework formed the basis of our Report on Plans and Priorities, which was submitted to Treasury Board in April.

One of the key strategic outcomes identified by senior staff in the strategic planning exercise for the OPC is, "To be a well-managed, effective and efficient Parliamentary agency". The development and implementation of a modern comptrollership plan is at the heart of the OPC achieving this objective. The Modern Comptrollership Action Plan that was completed, and submitted to Treasury Board in March will help us ensure that adequate management processes and controls are in place, providing a strong foundation for the Office's activities. Regular communication to staff on Modern Comptrollership and status reports to senior management will instil a modern comptrollership culture, and ensure that modern comptrollership-related principles and practices are followed.

The Modern Comptrollership framework for the Office includes a strong human resources focus. Key elements include shared values and ethics  and motivated staff. We are placing emphasis on these important aspects of the modern comptrollership framework as part of the overall renewal of the OPC.

Some of the other major corporate services accomplishments in 2003-2004 were:

• Launch of Integrated Investigation Application (IIA), an integrated caseload management system that supports key business processes.
• Completion of an Information Technology (IT) threat and risk analysis looking at issues such as security and IT operations. Many of the recommendations highlighted in this analysis, including those specifically relating to the integration of the external and internal networks, have been implemented.
• Completion and roll out of a revised delegation of financial authority framework.
• Provision of training to OPC staff on important financial policies, such as delegation, travel and hospitality.
• Development of an accommodation strategy for OPC.
• Enhancement of controls in the contracting process.

In FY 2004-05 the Corporate Services group will be focusing on initiatives in areas such as performance measurement, the streamlining of business processes, and human resources planning and management within the OPC.

At the beginning of fiscal year 2003-2004, the Office's budget was $11.2 million, the same as our budget of the previous year. Included in our budget was $6.7 million for the Office's PIPEDA activities. Funding of OPC activities has been and continues to be an important issue.

Initially, PIPEDA funding was provided for a three year period ending March 31, 2004, to allow the OPC to administer the new Act. This Act first came into force for certain sectors, specifically federally-regulated business, in January 2001. As of January 2004, however, the scope of the Act has increased to include the entire private sector. When funding was provided for the first three years of PIPEDA, the expectation was that towards the end of the three year period the Office would evaluate its experience in undertaking PIPEDA - related activities, and would confirm with Treasury Board its on-going funding requirements for this work.

Unfortunately, as a result of the events of FY 2003-2004 relating to the resignation of the former Commissioner, we were unable to perform this review with Treasury Board. At the end of fiscal 2003-2004, we obtained one year bridge funding for the OPC PIPEDA-related activities for fiscal 2004-2005. The Office is currently reviewing its financial resources, and plans to make a submission to Treasury Board in the fall of 2004 for on-going funding under both the Privacy Act and PIPEDA.

Resources
April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004

Note that as of March 2004 there were 95 full time staff positions at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

⁽¹⁾ Total expenditure figures are consistent with the public accounts.

Financial statements

Over the past several years, as part of the Financial Information Strategy, the Receiver General for Canada and departments have worked to put in place new financial information systems and to acquire the accounting expertise required to implement full accrual accounting. Overseeing this initiative, the Treasury Board Secretariat also developed the necessary accounting policies and training programs to implement full accrual accounting government-wide.

Under full accrual accounting, an entity's financial statements provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date picture of its financial situation and better reflect the impact of economic events and decisions made during the fiscal year. Better information means improved transparency and accountability.

Publication of accrual-based financial statements is being phased in for departments and agencies. Departmental corporations began presenting accrual-based financial statements in Volume II Part II of the 2001-2002 Public Accounts of Canada. For 2003-2004, the offices of the five agents of Parliament (the Offices of the Auditor General, Chief Electoral Officer, Commissioner of Official Languages, Privacy Commissioner and Information Commissioner) will report accrual-based financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Information on the use of their appropriations is contained in the preceding reports presented in the following tables.

In general terms, the use of appropriations focuses on spending and the acquisition of resources. Accrual accounting reports the cost of resources consumed during the year as well as reporting the assets and future financial obligations. For further details on the adoption of full accrual accounting, please refer to Annex 6 in The Budget Plan 2003.

The Management Responsibility letter and the audited financial statements as at March 31, 2004 are available on our web site http://www.priv.gc.ca.

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