2021-22 Management Accountability Framework Government-Wide Report

Results by area of management

Results by government-wide priority

Key findings: maturity

Assessing the level of maturity for ICFM processes ensures that a risk‑based departmental system of ICFM is established, monitored and maintained, and that it adheres to the Policy on Financial Management.

Overall, departments and agencies demonstrated stewardship over financial resources. This was evidenced by their continued progress toward reaching the ongoing monitoring stage for their ICFM processes.

Results from the 2021–22 MAF exercise show that 46% of key ICFM processes across assessed departments are at the ongoing monitoring stage, an improvement of 7% over last year. Although only seven LDAs have reached the ongoing monitoring stage for all key ICFM processes, the remaining LDAs are on track to have all of them reach the ongoing monitoring stage by March 31, 2024.

Departments and agencies are encouraged to continue working toward this target to demonstrate to senior management that they have a reliable system of ICFM and are taking action to improve controls.

Key findings: diverse workforce

Identifying, addressing and removing systemic barriers for public servants who identify as members of an employment equity group or an equity‑seeking group remains a priority. The Clerk’s Call to Action on Anti‑Racism, Equity, and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service, the 2020/2021 Deputy Minister Commitments on Diversity and Inclusion, and the January 2021 announcement of the government’s priorities for action seek to make measurable change in creating a diverse and inclusive public service.

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed organizations’ progress in closing representational gaps, supporting career advancement for employment equity groups and equity‑seeking groups, and addressing systemic barriers.

The 2021–22 results show that departments continue to work on meeting representation targets. Persons with disabilities are still underrepresented compared to their population in the workforce. At the department level, most representation targets for Indigenous peoples and members of visible minorities are met, but the use of disaggregated data has brought to light underrepresentation of specific groups in specific areas such as executive‑level positions.

To improve diversity and inclusion at all levels, departments have committed to actions including:

• hiring, across the Government of Canada, 5,000 new public servants with disabilities by 2025
• developing and promoting mentorship, sponsorship and leadership programs for members of the four employment equity groups and members of equity‑seeking groups
• identifying and addressing systemic barriers in the hiring process
• working with members of employment equity groups to take action to address issues affecting these groups

Key findings: inclusive and healthy workplace

In alignment with the Policy on People Management, the public service seeks to create a work environment for employees that is safe, supportive, ethical, and conducive to the use of both official languages.

Key areas of focus include:

• mental health in the workplace
• prevention of harassment and violence in the workplace
• values and ethics
• the use of official languages at work

Key findings: future of work

Questions in this theme considered how organizations are preparing for the trends shaping the future of work. Specifically, this section of the 2021–22 MAF questionnaire focused on how departments and agencies are progressing toward an agile and equipped workforce and workplace, including:

• the modernization of classification
• planning for the workplace of the future
• efficient staffing

Key findings: service standards

The Policy on Service and Digital requires that departments have “comprehensive and transparent client‑centric standards, related targets, and performance information for all service‑delivery channels in use.” Client‑centric service standards focus on addressing client or user expectations, needs, challenges and feedback. They enable the creation of a positive experience for the client or user, considering a broad range of factors such as access, inclusion, accessibility, security, privacy, simplicity, and choice of official language.

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed an organization’s level of service‑standard maturity based on a weighted average of three elements:

1. percentage of services that have service standards (weighted at 45%)
2. percentage of services that met their target (weighted at 35%)
3. percentage of service standards that have been reviewed in the last five years (weighted at 20%).

According to the 2021–22 MAF exercise:

• 12% of LDAs have a high level of maturity with respect to service standards
• 62% of LDAs have a medium level of maturity
• 26% of LDAs have a low level of maturity

Key findings: availability of online services

The Policy on Service and Digital requires that departments maximize online end‑to‑end availability of services and their ease of use to complement all service‑delivery channels. Making services available online provides added convenience to many clients, who increasingly expect government services to be accessible, fast, personalized, secure, and to respect their privacy.

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed the level of maturity toward making services available online based on a weighted average of two elements:

1. the percentage of services that can be completed online from end‑to‑end (weighted at 50%)
2. the percentage of client interaction points that are available online for services (weighted at 50%)

According to the 2021–22 MAF exercise:

• only 9% of LDAs have a high level of maturity for making services available online
• 29% of LDAs have a medium level of maturity
• 62% have a low level of maturity

The pandemic continues to show how important external online services are to Canadians and businesses, and how important internal online government‑wide services are to federal public servants. Departments and agencies must make all their applicable services available online end‑to‑end.

Key findings: service management

The Policy on Service and Digital requires that organizations plan and manage their services in an integrated way and that they continuously improve them. Doing so ensures that services meet the evolving needs of clients, are efficient, and align with the overall Government of Canada service direction.

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed the extent to which an organization is taking steps to manage and improve its services based on a weighted average of four elements:

1. the designation of departmental official(s) for service management and cybersecurity (weighted at 25%)
2. a deputy head‑approved service inventory (weighted at 25%)
3. a deputy head‑approved 2020–21 Departmental Plan on Service and Digital that included service improvement priorities (weighted at 25%)
4. the percentage of services that use client feedback to improve services (weighted at 25%)

The results were as follows:

• 59% of LDAs have a high level of maturity in the extent to which they are taking steps to manage and improve their services
• 38% have a medium level of maturity
• 3% have a low level of maturity

Of the four elements assessed, the percentage of services that use client feedback to improve services was the lowest scoring element, at 35%.

Key findings: IT maturity

In the 2021–22 MAF exercise, IT maturity was assessed as a composite indicator based on the weighted average of four elements:

• application portfolio health (weighted at 25%)
• alignment of Shared Services Canada (SSC) business requirements to IT investments (weighted at 25%)
• cloud maturity (weighted at 25%)
• IT planning maturity (weighted at 25%)

The results are as follows:

• 44% of LDAs have an overall high level of IT maturity
• 53% have an overall medium level of IT maturity
• 3% have an overall low level of IT maturity

These scores were lower than expected because of the low results for two elements: application portfolio health and cloud maturity. However, most LDAs scored high on the alignment of SSC business requirements to IT investments, with an average score of 89%.

Key findings: modernizing the digital workspace

The Directive on Service and Digital requires that departments respect the limits and thresholds specified in the Standard on Information Technology Provisions, which defines standards that ensure that users and work points have the technology needed for a digital workspace.

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed the level of compliance in supplying the data required to measure the implementation of the Standard on Information Technology Provisions. The indicator was a weighted average of six elements:

1. submission of a deputy head‑approved Departmental Plan on Service and Digital (weighted at 50%)
2. compliance plans for fixed‑line telephony service (weighted at 10%)
3. mobile phone service (weighted at 10%)
4. email systems (weighted at 10%)
5. cloud brokering services (weighted at 10%)
6. conferencing and collaboration services (weighted at 10%)

The results are as follows:

• 94% of LDAs have a high level of compliance in supplying the required data
• 6% of LDAs have a medium level of compliance
• 0% of LDAs have a low level of compliance

Departments and agencies are encouraged to submit subsequent Departmental Plans on Service and Digital and the required compliance plans by the established deadlines to enable full delivery of a digital workspace.

Key findings: information and data management approach

The Policy on Service and Digital requires that departments manage information and data in ways that enable interoperability and that allow for reuse and sharing within and across departments. This goal is to avoid duplication and maximize value, while respecting security and privacy requirements and making sure that methodologies, mechanisms and tools are implemented to support information and data life‑cycle management.

TBS is drafting a new Standard on Systems that Manage Information. The new standard will:

• cover both information and data
• be technology‑agnostic (in other words, it won’t require any specific technology, and it will apply regardless of the technology being used)
• be based on principles and business outcomes

Once the new standard is in place, it will replace the current Standard on Electronic Documents and Records Management Solutions. One key principle of this new standard will be the use of standardized metadata and data taxonomies across departments.

The 2021–22 MAF assessment gathered information on how departments manage information and data throughout the life cycle and across multiple systems. The results provide a baseline picture of where departments are in their journey of managing information and of whether they are already using standardized metadata.

The assessment shows that 59% of LDAs have an approach for managing information and data. Of that 59%, 40% use standardized metadata across all systems and 60% do not.

The other 41% of LDAs do not have an approach for managing information and data throughout their life cycle and across multiple systems. Of that 41%, 86% use standardized metadata in some of their corporate repositories and 14% do not.

The results show that some departments and agencies are ready to manage information and data throughout the life cycle and should be encouraged to include standardized metadata. To be able to implement the new standard, departments must be using standardized metadata. The MAF assessment shows that about half of assessed organizations are ready to start implementing the standard. TBS will need to help the others get to this starting point.

Key findings: effective security planning and reporting

Effective, integrated security planning and reporting helps an organization identify and manage security risks and implement mitigation strategies. A departmental security plan sets out strategies for strengthening security practices and controls and identifies department‑wide priorities for mitigating security risks. A departmental security plan also supports decision‑making, effectiveness and accountability.

As set out in section 4.1.5 of the Policy on Government Security, departments and agencies must:

• have an approved three‑year departmental security plan
• review the plan annually

In the 2021–22 MAF exercise, 78% of assessed LDAs provided evidence that they have a departmental security plan. Improvement in this area will help identify government‑wide security risks, set related priorities and strengthen the government’s security posture.

Key findings: preparedness for and effective response to events

Business continuity management is an important security control. It helps departments and agencies identify their critical services and come up with strategies for continuing to provide services during disasters or emergencies, particularly services that help protect the health, safety, security and economic well‑being of Canadians.

The Directive on Security Management requires that organizations complete a business impact analysis for all services to support continued availability of critical services, and that they define continuity strategies and recovery priorities.

In the 2021–22 MAF exercise, only half of assessed LDAs demonstrated that 100% of their external and internal services are supported by an up‑to‑date business impact analysis. This highlights the opportunity for departments to continue to improve performance in this area so that LDAs can assess their risk environment and critical services.

In addition, 78% of assessed LDAs provided evidence that they integrated their critical services into the broader service inventory, meaning there is one trusted source of Government of Canada services information. The service inventory is a vital source of intelligence when preparing for and responding to significant events.

Key findings: trusted information systems and processes

Trusted information systems and processes are key to ensuring that the government is continuously monitoring internal systems for threats, vulnerabilities and unauthorized access.

According to the 2021–22 MAF assessment, 83% of assessed LDAs are fully compliant with the requirements aimed at ensuring that IT systems are limited to only authorized users. The remaining 17% are partially compliant, meaning that they provided evidence of having an operational policy and procedures and an established frequency but that they lacked secondary evidence of the “whole picture” or other applied evidence such as audit logs. These results indicate that IT security risks are being managed, but that policies, procedures and technology measures could be improved in order to, in turn, improve access management services.

As a result of the pandemic, employees in most departments and agencies shifted to remote and hybrid work. Having employees work off‑site increased the security risk for the Government of Canada and meant that new measures were needed to safeguard information and assets.

According to the 2021–22 MAF exercise, 100% of assessed LDAs provided the necessary guidance to employees on safeguarding physical assets, equipment and information, which enabled organizations to mitigate security risks in a remote work environment. Mitigating security risks arising from the changing workplace landscape remains a government‑wide priority.

Key findings: gender‑based analysis plus reporting

The Canadian Gender Budgeting Act makes consideration of gender equality and diversity a requirement of the federal budget process. The act lays out responsibilities for the Minister of Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), the Minister of Finance and the President of the Treasury Board in support of the principles of gender‑based analysis plus (GBA Plus):

• WAGE provides leadership on GBA Plus across the Government of Canada by providing guidance, best practices and expertise on it
• the President of the Treasury Board makes available to the public once a year an analysis of the impacts of existing Government of Canada expenditure programs on gender and diversity available; departments provide this analysis in the supplementary information table on GBA Plus that they provide with their Departmental Results Report

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed the percentage of programs in an organization’s program inventory, excluding internal services, that have data collection plans in place so that they can report on program impacts in terms of gender and diversity.

For all assessed departments, 58% of total programs were undertaking data collection activities related to GBA Plus.

Only five departments had a GBA Plus data collection plan for 100% of their programs. All departments must improve their capacity to report on impacts of their programs in terms of gender and diversity so that decision‑makers and the public have access to more meaningful information.

Key findings: performance information profile assessment

Under the Policy on Results, each program in an organization’s program inventory must have a performance information profile (PIP). The PIP provides a consolidated view of the program’s plans for tracking performance.

As part of the MAF assessment, TBS assessed the quality of the plans in PIPs, which enabled it to provide organizations with feedback on their capacity to produce and manage high‑quality results information.

In the 2021–22 MAF exercise, TBS rated departments’ PIPs on a scale of 1 to 5. The rating was based on a weighted average of the scores for four elements:

1. the quality of outcomes (weighted at 30%)
2. the quality of indicators (weighted at 30%)
3. the clarity of program logic (weighted at 15%)
4. the completeness of attributes for each indicator (weighted at 25%)

The average score for this MAF cycle was 3.66, just under last year’s average of 3.16.

Five organizations had an average score lower than 3; seven had a score greater than 4. For most PIPs, therefore, the foundations are established, but improvement is needed in some elements, such as the quality of outcomes and indicators.

Figure 1 shows average PIP scores for all programs, by element.

Figure 1 - Text version

Figure 1: average performance information profile scores for all programs, by element, 2020–21

Element	Average score
Quality of outcomes	3.53
Quality of indicators	3.00
Completeness of attributes	4.16
Program logic	4.38

Key findings: experimentation

The 2021–22 MAF assessment provides insight into organizations’ experimentation efforts, consistent with the Experimentation Direction for Deputy Heads, December 2016, which provides direction to deputy heads on developing and testing new approaches to designing and delivering programs and policies. Experimentation helps generate evidence to inform decision‑making and improve outcomes for Canadians.

Since experimentation was added to the MAF in 2018–19, results have shown that organizations are increasingly using experimentation to find new ways to address problems and improve outcomes for Canadians and are using the results of experiments to inform decision‑making.

According to the 2021–22 MAF assessment exercise, the most common investment type for LDAs was committing resources to increase experimentation activity (94% of LDAs), followed by running experiments (79% of LDAs). Figure 2 shows the number of LDAs investing in experimentation, by investment type, from the start of the 2018 calendar year to the end of the 2020–21 fiscal year.^{Footnote 4}

Figure 2 - Text version

Figure 2: number of large departments and agencies investing in experimentation, by investment type, 2018 calendar year to 2020–21 fiscal year

Investment type	2018 calendar year	2019 calendar year	2020 calendar year	2020–21
Committing resources	28	30	31	32
Running experiments	21	27	30	27
Experimentation framework	15	17	22	23
Incorporating into governance	16	17	20	21
Building capacity	19	27	25	25

Although the number of LDAs that are incorporating experimentation into governance has been increasing steadily, more of them need to do so. Incorporating experimentation into governance makes it part of formal decision‑making processes and therefore more likely to be used throughout an organization.

Between the 2019 and 2021–22 MAF exercises, the use of experimental evidence to inform decision‑making increased across all categories of use.^{Footnote 5} The most common uses of experimental results were to scale up (53%) initiatives and to disseminate results for decision‑making (47%).

Figure 3 shows the number of LDAs that are using the results of experiments to inform decision-making, by type of use, from the start of the 2019 calendar year to the end of the 2020–21 fiscal year.

Figure 3 - Text version

Figure 3: number of large departments and agencies using results of experiments to inform decision-making, by type of use, 2018 calendar year to 2020–21 fiscal year

Type of use	2019 calendar year	2020 calendar year	2020–21
Results used to scale up an initiative	17	21	18
Results used to shut down an initiative	4	7	6
Results used to course‑correct an initiative	5	23	9
Results disseminated for decision‑making	13	26	16
Results used in another way	4	8	9

Experimentation helps organizations deliver public value by generating evidence to learn what works and inform decision-making. Departments and agencies are encouraged to use experimental evidence to scale back or shut down initiatives when evidence demonstrates limited effectiveness, to ensure that organizations obtain good value for money.

Key findings: greening government outcomes

In 2017, the government introduced the Greening Government Strategy. According to the strategy, “the Government of Canada will transition to net‑zero carbon and climate‑resilient operations, while also reducing environmental impacts beyond carbon, including those on waste, water and biodiversity.”

In the strategy, the government commits to aligning relevant policies to further incorporate greening and climate resilience in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from real property and conventional fleet^{Footnote 6} by 40% by 2025 and achieve net‑zero by 2050.

According to the 2021–22 MAF exercise, compared to a 2005 baseline, 73% of assessed LDAs have reached, almost reached or moved beyond the 40% reduction target and 27% have work to do to decrease emissions to support the target reductions of 40% by 2025 and net‑zero by 2050.

Key findings: investment planning and real property management

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed whether departments and agencies are:

• producing consolidated performance information on their investments in:
  • information technology
  • real property
  • materiel
  • projects
  • procurement
• reporting this information to the governance committee or to the individual responsible for investment oversight
• itemizing the active investments as detailed in their investment plan

Almost 91% of assessed LDAs provided evidence of consolidated reporting to governance committees and decision‑makers. The consolidated reporting supports informed decision‑making, which aligns with the intent of the Policy on the Planning and Management of Investments.

As set out in the Directive on the Management of Real Property, organizations that hold custodial real property assets are expected to manage those assets “in a manner that enables operational outcomes, demonstrates sound stewardship and provides best value, consistent with the Government of Canada’s socio‑economic and environmental objectives.” They are also expected to make real property decisions “based on risk management practices, performance information and an assessment of full life‑cycle costs.” Life‑cycle management strategies must enable departments to optimize the performance of their assets. For example, setting a target rate of annual reinvestment for Crown‑owned real property helps in assessing whether adequate resources are being dedicated to properly maintaining real property assets.

According to the 2021–22 MAF exercise:

• 66% of assessed departments are setting target rates of reinvestment that are below the government‑wide average.
• Only 29% of assessed departments met their target rate of reinvestment

These results indicate that most departments’ real property assets are at risk of deteriorating faster than life‑cycle forecasts predict because of an increasing backlog of deferred work, which could compromise program and service delivery.

Key findings: materiel management and procurement

A strong asset management regime ensures that a department has the materiel it needs to carry out its mandates and that its materiel holdings provide best value. It also protects materiel and provides materiel management practitioners with up‑to‑date information on the state of their materiel to help them maintain it, prevent loss and identify surplus materiel. One element of such a regime is stock‑taking, which minimizes the risk of loss, damage and unauthorized access to materiel holdings.

According to the 2021–22 MAF exercise, over 60% of assessed LDAs have implemented an approach to stock‑taking that meets the requirements of the Policy on the Management of Materiel.^{Footnote 7} The remaining 40% of assessed LDAs need to ensure that all materiel management practitioners in their organizations have access to a clear and effective set of procedures that are specifically tailored to their department’s needs and circumstances.

Government procurement activities need to comply with legislation, regulations, policies and should follow best practices so that the acquisition of goods and services is conducted in a manner that enhances access, competition and fairness. Procurement activities should also provide best value, ensuring the optimal balance of overall benefits to the Crown and Canadians. Federal departments and agencies are responsible for managing procurement in a manner that meets public expectations in matters of prudence and integrity and is consistent with the Government of Canada’s socio‑economic and environmental objectives.

The 2021–22 MAF exercise assessed the use of competitive procurement instruments, governance and oversight of the management of procurement, and procurement from Indigenous business.

Of procurements over $25,000, 80% of the value and 69% of contracts were the result of a competitive process. Despite challenges such as the pandemic and other factors that limited competition, overall, assessed organizations continued to use competitive processes for procurement.

The MAF results show that most of the assessed departments had relatively good governance and oversight mechanisms in place for procurement. They need to improve their mechanisms for post‑contract review, however.

Departments are also making progress on developing strategies to promote procurement from Indigenous businesses. More than half of assessed LDAs already have an Indigenous procurement plan in place, and most others are on their way to developing a plan to achieve the mandatory minimum target of 5% for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses by April 1, 2024.