AUTUMN 2013
FMI
*
IGF JOURNAL
19
Comptrollership Initiatives:
Transforming Financial Processes to Better Support Decision Making
and Accountabilities
James Ralston, Comptroller General of Canada
Introduction
In March 2013, in his twentieth report
to the Prime Minister, the Clerk of the
Privy Council stated that the public
service must continue to find “ever
more efficient ways of delivering on our
core business responsibilities”
1
and must
“provide better service to Canadians at a
lower cost.”
2
We in the comptrollership
function are doing that by introducing
new business models and ways of working,
and by building on lessons learned and
best practices from the public and private
sectors. We are streamlining our business
processes, leveraging technology and
pursuing creative solutions to fulfill our
mandate.
The challenge before us is significant:
transforming financial management in
government. Meeting this challenge
will take time and will require a multi-
pronged approach. We have undertaken a
number of separate but related initiatives
to rationalize the complex environment.
Some have already delivered important
building blocks that will support this
transformation; others will have results
over the longer term.
As the Clerk wrote in his report, “the
traditional Westminster model of authority
and accountability in government must
adapt to reflect the new and more complex
problems facing Canada.”
3
These problems
are horizontal, and so are the solutions.
The initiatives we have undertaken address
long-standing challenges, such as:
• difficulties in assembling financial
information that is timely, relevant and
useful government-wide;
• financial administration processes that
may hinder rather than enable program
delivery; and,
common financial information, data,
business processes, system configurations
and new financial management governance
for the federal government.
Although the current systems ensure
strong financial management and internal
controls over public resources, and
although they reinforce the principles of
probity and prudence, most of them are
outdated, too granular and customized, and
cumbersome for the back office. As a result,
the task of generating accurate, reliable and
timely information, particularly in support
of government-wide decision making, is
an onerous one. Since we cannot afford to
replace the hundreds of financial systems,
• overly customized and costly systems
oriented toward after-the-fact record
keeping rather than toward effective
financial and resource management
throughout the business cycle.
The initiatives cover four main areas:
financial systems andprocesses, information
for decision making, accountabilities, and
the financial management community.
1. Financial Systems and Processes
The Office of the Comptroller General
(OCG), in close cooperation with
departments and agencies, is leading a
number of initiatives that will result in
1
Clerk of the Privy Council,
Twentieth Annual Report
to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada
,
March 2013, p. 3.
2
Ibid, p. 3.
3
Ibid, p. 11.
Comptrollership Initiatives
