Management Response and Action Plan - Audit of the Key Financial Controls - Health Canada, Year 4 - October 2014

Recommendation 1

It is recommended that the Chief Financial Officer review and strengthen access controls to the departmental financial system, to ensure that mutually exclusive roles cannot be assigned to a single user.

Management agrees with the recommendation.

Actions will be taken to review security roles and to ensure alignment with new business processes and system enhancements, and additional monitoring will be performed.

1.1 FIRMS will perform a review of the security access of the users where PAAB identified access to incompatible duties and will either make adjustments to security roles or remove user access to security roles.

Adjusted SAP security roles and/or removal of user access to security roles.

 March 31, 2015

Director, Accounting Operations and Systems Division, FOD, CFOB

1.2 FIRMS will perform quarterly monitoring of the FIRMS’ employees with access to the Post-Invoice and Payment Run for production support purposes, to ensure that no transactions are posted.

Quarterly monitoring to ensure that FIRMS employees with access to Post-Invoice and Payment Run have not posted any transactions.

March 31, 2015

Director, Accounting Operations and Systems Division, FOD, CFOB

Recommendation 2

It is recommended that the Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Branch, conduct cyclical and ongoing monitoring activities for salary payments and report to the Financial Operations Directorate, as described in the Compensation Monitoring Framework.

Management agrees with the recommendation.

The reason that monitoring was not conducted in fiscal year 2013-14 was due to the fact that during the same time period, two Portfolio Audit and Accountability Bureau (PAAB) audits (PeopleSoft and Regional Operations) and a CFOB-ICD review took place. Resources were spent instead on enhancing controls and responding to the above-mentioned reviews.

2.1 The Human Resources Services Directorate will conduct quarterly monitoring and reporting, in accordance with the CSB Compensation Monitoring Framework, until such time as all compensation activities have been transferred from Health Canada to the Public Works and Government Services Canada Pay Centre. Monitoring activities for fiscal year 2014-15 are underway and operating effectively, in accordance with this framework.

Compensation Monitoring Plan for 2014-15

Plan completed March 2014

Director General of Human Resources Directorate, Corporate Services Branch.

Quarterly monitoring reports against the Plan. As of August 31, 2014, Q1 reporting is complete, as per the monitoring schedule. Three reports have been submitted:

• Leave Adjustment Reason Report to PAAB regarding a PeopleSoft audit deliverable;
• Vacation Cash-out Report; and,
• Severance Pay Report to FOD, CFOB.

• Q1 August 2014
• Q2 November 2014
• Q3 February 2015
• Q4 May 2015

Compensation Monitoring Plan for 2015 (for period April to October only).

March 2015

Quarterly monitoring reports against the Plan.

• Q1 August 2015
• Q2 November 2015