BC: Steady Progress in Reporting on Performance

March 16, 2006

The Government of British Columbia is a leader among Canadian jurisdictions in the use of public performance reports. BC's Auditor General, Wayne Strelioff, has been an effective champion of performance reporting, working closely with legislators and senior public servants to develop and improve performance reports.

CCAF Executive Michael Eastman talked to Wayne about British Columbia’s progress.

Wayne Strelioff
Auditor General of British Columbia

Wayne Strelioff was appointed Auditor General of British Columbia in May 2000 for a six-year term. His appointment was unanimously recommended following a national search conducted by a Special Committee of the Legislature. Before moving to British Columbia, Wayne served as the Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan from November 1990 to April 2000.

He is actively involved in a variety of professional organizations including the Institutes of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia and of Canada, the CCAF (formerly known as the Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation), and the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors. In 1992, he was awarded the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation of Canada which recognizes significant contributions to compatriots, the community and to Canada. In 2003, Wayne was recognized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia for his contribution to the accounting profession throughout his career, by naming him a Fellow and awarding him the FCA designation.

Born and raised in Saskatoon, Wayne graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Commerce. In 1978, he obtained his Chartered Accountant designation with Peat, Marwick & Mitchell (now KPMG) in Saskatoon. After receiving his designation, he returned to the University of Saskatchewan and obtained a Masters of Science degree.

BC: STEADY PROGRESS IN REPORTING ON PERFORMANCE

Michael Eastman: Why has BC placed so much emphasis on performance reports?

Wayne Strelioff: Our experience is that performance reporting - setting out publicly the outcomes government wishes to accomplish and the results it actually achieved - is key to having a government that is open and accountable. And better accountability to the public leads to better performance.

Everybody wants government to perform well. The Government of BC spends tens of billions of dollars every year and employs over two hundred thousand people in nearly two hundred public sector organizations. In the past, organizations focused primarily on resources used and activities undertaken. Now, well-run organizations link their resources, strategies and results clearly. Performance reports are the tool for making this linkage visible.

Michael Eastman: What did the BC government and legislature do to strengthen performance reporting?

BC'S REPORTING PRINCIPLES

Explain the public purpose served
Link goals and results
Focus on the few, critical aspects of performance
Relate results to risk and capacity
Link resources, strategies and results
Provide comparative information
Present credible information, fairly interpreted
Disclose the basis for key reporting judgements

Wayne Strelioff: In the mid-1990s my predecessor, George Morfitt, began working with deputy ministers to develop a comprehensive integrated performance management and accountability framework for the whole of government. In 2000, just before he retired, George called for the commitment and active support of political leaders to measure and report publicly on government's results, and modern legislation to make it happen.

The BC Legislature subsequently passed the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act. The Act requires government and its organizations to report publicly on their performance, outlining their intended achievements in service plans and their actual results in annual reports.

My office began, in 2001, to review annual reports and performance plans of the government. We now conduct annual assessments of the quality of performance reporting and report on our findings.

In 2003, the government, the legislature and my office agreed on a set of performance reporting principles for the BC public sector. [See box] This meant that for the first time in Canada, those who prepare public performance plans and reports, those who use them and those who assess them do so from a common basis, with agreement on the fundamentals of meaningful performance reporting.

The reporting principles are consistent with those developed by CCAF and those being examined for use nationally by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Michael Eastman: In your annual reviews of the government's performance reports, have you seen significant signs of progress?

Wayne Strelioff: First, I should note that we are asking the system to undertake a major cultural change from rules-based management to results-based management. You would expect such a significant change to take from seven to ten years.

Having said that, I can say that we are seeing improvement. In my most recent assessment of the government's service plans, in July 2005, I said that none of the reports assessed provided a complete picture of performance. However, we are seeing a steady increase in the quality of performance reports.

In conducting our assessments, we have used different but related criteria and provided different levels of assurance. Our rationale is that we need to experiment with different ways of approaching audits in this new area. So far, we have been able to avoid having to give a “negative opinion.”

We were particularly pleased with the annual performance report of the Workers' Compensation Board for the year ended December 31, 2004. Our examination concluded that the report fairly presents, in all significant respects, the performance of the Board in accordance with the BC reporting principles. This was the first time we reached such a conclusion.

Michael Eastman: How are public servants reacting to this new emphasis on results-focused management?

Wayne Strelioff: Government managers have been very supportive. They say the use of performance measures helps them identify the value their programs create. They are finding that having targets drives their programs to better performance, and monitoring whether they have met their targets leads to more informed decisions.

They also say, however, that visible leadership and sustained commitment from senior executives is lacking. We would like to see senior executives step forward to champion, monitor and coordinate efforts across the provincial public sector and send the message that results-based management is supported and is here to stay.

Michael Eastman: What are your plans for the future in this area?

Wayne Strelioff: We want public and elected representatives to get the best information possible for assessing the performance of the provincial public sector. And as performance information improves, we want legislators to understand the credibility of the information and use it to hold government to account.

From that point of view, we are looking forward to the upcoming release of CCAF's research report on Users and Uses of public performance information. I am anticipating that we will be able to take some of the ideas in that report and use them to work with BC legislators to get full value from the BC government's performance reports.

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