HUMA Committee Report
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Since the 1999 internal audit, HRSDC has taken several necessary steps to improve the financial management of grant and contribution programs. However, it is evident from the recent reaction of many organizations that phase one of the Specialization and Concentration Initiative, especially in terms of the call-for-proposals process, has created unnecessary turmoil in many communities across the country. Members of the Committee believe that the rapid implementation of the four national directives released on 16 February 2004 was flawed and damaging to some highly valued organizations and the clients they serve. In our view, voluntary sector and other organizations provide a valuable community service to help unemployed individuals find and maintain employment; these groups deserve to be treated as essential partners in the delivery of HRSDC programs.
It was a drastic change for all the community and volunteer sector organizations that were used to working with us, HRSDC, and when I started to have some concerns by members of Parliament about it, I sat down with my officials to look at what happened and how to implement that new approach, I found out exactly what my officials told you at the last hearing that, first of all, because it was a major change, it was very difficult for the sector to adapt to that new approach. I think the implementation was rushed for the sector, so it was very difficult for them … The second difficulty is that perhaps we didn’t prepare the sector enough to be able to really face that new process … I don’t question the principle here, but I question how to fix the process so that it will be done in the right way with the sector ... With your recommendations that you give me forward, and with the recommendations of the sector too, I have asked my officials to sit down with the major organizations and to look with them at how we can improve that process. (The Honourable Lucienne Robillard, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development)55
The Committee’s recommendations offer guidance and direction to help HRSDC improve its management and delivery of contribution programs. We believe that HRSDC needs to improve its relationship with the many essential community organizations that deliver programs on its behalf. Our recommendations are intended to restore fairness to project selection and monitoring by modifying funding selection criteria, by providing a better balance between financial and results-based accountability and by reducing the administrative burden that weighs heavily on many program providers.
Finally, all members of the Committee appreciate and thank those groups and individuals who took the time to share their views with us by appearing at a meeting or by submitting a brief. Without their participation in, and valuable contribution to, our study, this report would not have been possible.
| 55 | House of Commons, HUMA, Evidence, 1st Session, 38th Parliament, Meeting No. 30 (12:25), Tuesday, 19 April 2005. |