CNSC Action Plan in Response to the Treasury Board Secretariat MAF Assessment Round VII

Quality and Use of Evaluation

Opportunity for Improvement

• Realign Evaluation function to the Strategic Planning Directorate

• Appoint head of Evaluation

• Develop Evaluation Universe and Policy

• Create CNSC Evaluation Advisory Committee

• Apply risk assessment criteria to inform the 5 year plan

The CNSC is a high performance organization and, as such, is committed to continuous improvements through evaluation of its processes and performance. This is evidenced through recent Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) Mission.

The Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) peer review was conducted by a team of international experts with direct experience in the areas being evaluated.

The mission assessed the organization, its governance, legislative framework, and its key program areas against international norms and best practices. The output of this exercise was a comprehensive report, prepared by international nuclear safety experts and published in the Fall of 2009, on the performance of the CNSC as a nuclear regulator. The findings and management response will help the CNSC make further improvements to its regulatory regime.

The Harmonized Plan of Improvement Initiatives (Harmonized Plan) was developed in response to findings and recommendations from the Talisman International LLC Lessons Learned report and the IRRS findings. This plan has evolved to include various internal and external audits and assessments conducted on the CNSC processes and will also include recommendations stemming from the evaluation function.

It brings together all corporate-wide improvement initiatives under a single umbrella; sets clear deliverables and assigns accountability to ensure that all commitments are met.

The CNSC recently undertook a preliminary survey on risk management to determine the degree in which the organization was implementing the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's (TBS) Integrated Risk Management Framework (IRMF) and identify potential areas for management focus in moving RM forward within the organization.

Overall, the audit team found that CNSC has made strong progress in the last three years in implementing a more systematic approach to integrating RM into decision-making that is consistent with the expectations set out in the IRMF. CNSC officials have demonstrated risk awareness and a willingness to respond to opportunities to improve RM across the organization. CNSC has made progress to better integrate RM into strategic priority setting through the Harmonized Plan (HP) Initiative and apply RM across operational activities with the development of risk-informed decision making (RIDM) methodologies. There were, however, opportunities identified to further develop integrated risk management throughout the organization.

A management response to the survey has been drafted and will be implemented. The CNSC accepts the recommendation stemming from the MAF assessment and preliminary risk survey and will implement recommendations.

Currently the Management Committee is responsible for reviewing risks and ensuring mitigation strategies are in place. Risk management is used as a planning tool to inform the planning and priority setting exercise each fall, and the CNSC continues each year to improve the process. Directors general are consulted and lead the development of the enterprise risk profile at the CNSC. An updated risk profile will be presented in the Fall as part of the 2011-12 Planning process. The CNSC also intends to integrate a risk management approach horizontally across the organization and vertically through its ranks.

Since Summer 2009, the Centre of Excellence on Risk Management at TBS has been developing a new Framework for the Management of Risk, which articulates a government-wide, principles-based approach to risk management. This Framework was approved by Treasury Board Ministers on May 27, 2010, and will come into force at the end of August 2010. The CNSC intends to utilize this new Framework to reinforce and continue to integrate the risk management process within the organization.

March 31,
2011

1. User Fee Act
   
   
   • Failure to respect the Legislative reporting requirement to report under the User Fee Act. In the Departmental Performance Report (DPR). CNSC failed to report activities under the act. CNSC has ONLY the Access to Information activities that qualify under this act as CNSC licensing and compliance recovery activities do not fall under this act.
     
     Action taken:
     
     CNSC will ensure to distinctively report CNSC Assess to Information fees generated during a given fiscal year in its DPR.

1. Hospitality 2005 Internal Audit Report - Findings
   
   
2. The 2005 Hospitality Internal Audit Report highlighted that 6 hospitality transactions were processed without pre-authorizations.
   
   Action taken:
   
   Measures have been implemented to ensure that pre-authorized hospitality transactions are processed by FAD. Training have been developed and delivered to all management on this issue.

1. Failure to respect the TBS Costing Policy. The MAF Round VII included a questionnaire where one question pertained to the TBS Costing Policy. Misinterpretation of that question led to a “Non answer” to that specific question. As a result, CNSC didn't get any marks in that area and therefore was perceived as not meeting the policy requirements.
   
   Nevertheless, CNSC has its own Cost Recovery Regulations that are in compliance with the TBS Costing Policy. In the post MAF Round VII Results debrief with TBS, TBS recognized CNSC's leadership in the costing arena among all government departments and agencies.
   
   Action taken:
   
   After discussion with TBS - No immediate action is required.

1. TBS Financial Policy Renewal Framework

• Policy Framework on Financial Management;
• Policy on Financial Management Governance;
• Policy on Financial Resource Management, Information and Reporting ;
• Policy on Internal Control; and
• Policy on the Stewardship of Financial Management Systems.

CNSC agreed with the 2005 Hospitality Results. Actions have been taken and implemented.

The Office of Audit and Ethics has conducted an “Audit of Contracting and Procurement”. This audit report was tabled at the Audit Committee (AC) meeting in October 2009 and subsequently approved by the President. The OAE conducts a follow-up of the action plans that addressed the recommendations of the audit and brief the AC regularly about the status of their implementations. The audit report including the action plans has been sent to OCG and posted on CNSC's Web site.

The OAE has conducted an “Audit of CNSC travel and hospitality”. It will be tabled at the AC meeting for review and recommendations for approval by the President.

The CNSC Risk-Based Audit Plan (RBAP) calls for an “Audit of Financial Guarantees and Decommissioning Funds”.

Effectiveness of Internal Audit Function

Acceptable

Progress

Opportunity for Improvement

The CNSC Audit Committee and the CAE have completed the required performance reports (CAE Annual Report; Audit Committee Annual Report) for the 2009-10 year. These reports will be provided to the OCG.

Completed