I'm pleased to have the opportunity to attend and give evidence at the committee and to clarify my role in the RCMP pension administration outsourcing project. My background includes over 30 years' work experience in the compensation area of the public sector. I have a masters of business administration, and I am a project management professional, certified by the Project Management Institute. I'm an accredited faculty member at two U.S. universities.
Through a competitive process, I was awarded a contract to provide services as the project budget and risk officer for the pension administration outsourcing project. My role included activities such as determining the financial requirements for the project, developing a risk management strategy and framework for the project, conducting the initial and periodic risk assessments over the life of the project, and providing project management advice based on globally accepted project management processes endorsed by the Project Management Institute and the Treasury Board on behalf of the Government of Canada.
My role did not include the outsourcing of insurance administration, and to the best of my recollection, I did not participate in any activities associated with the insurance outsourcing, except for the two items I mentioned at this committee last week, namely, reviewing the text of the agreement between the insurance committee and the pension advisory committee, and determining the numbers, the approximate 60-40 split between the active and retired members, based on stats I had available to me.
I want to clear up any misunderstandings and misrepresentations stemming from various testimony given before this committee alluding to the fact that proper approvals were not sought by the NCPC, the National Compensation Policy Centre, for pension administration outsourcing costs. To the contrary, in my role as the project budget officer for the project, I drafted five formal submissions to the ministers of the Treasury Board to secure approval of funding for the RCMP pension administration outsourcing project. I also drafted the submission to the Treasury Board ministers for the approval of the devolution of pension administration activities from the RCMP to the outsourcer.
Each of the funding submissions and supporting documentation included a very detailed description of the activities that would be performed to support the project, the anticipated costs, as well as the authorities under which the funding approvals were being requested.
Prior to being presented to the Treasury Board ministers, each submission and accompanying supporting documentation and rationale was routed through the formal approval process for Treasury Board submissions for sign-off at each stage. For all of the pension administration outsourcing submissions, this routing and approval included the human resources directorate, RCMP; the corporate and financial services directorate, RCMP; the commissioner's office; the Solicitor General of Canada; the Treasury Board Secretariat, submission unit; the Treasury Board Secretariat RCMP analyst, Mr. Robert Dykstra; and finally the ministers of the Treasury Board. Corresponding TB minute references are provided in the hard copy of my statement.
I want to make it perfectly clear that every nickel of every proposed expenditure associated with pension administration outsourcing was covered off in the authorities of the submission approvals. Additionally, every activity related to a chargeable expenditure was fully described in the submissions and supporting documentation.
Mr. Robert Dykstra, the Treasury Board analyst assigned to the RCMP, was consulted at every stage of the process and participated fully as the TBS representative in extensive discussions and meetings, and provided agreement on behalf of the Treasury Board Secretariat to the RCMP. This participation, in addition to discussion and explanation of the financial numbers, included extensive TBS analyst input into the actual wording for the submission documents and accompanying rationale.
The Treasury Board Secretariat analyst and officials within the corporate and financial management directorate of the RCMP, as well as all others in the formal document approval chain, agreed, via their review and sign-off, that all items of proposed expenditures that were to be charged as pension outsourcing administrative costs against the RCMP pension fund were in fact legitimate items based on the rules and charging principles established by the Treasury Board for acceptable administrative charges.
The Treasury Board Secretariat and the Treasury Board ministers established the rules, and these rules were applied in an equal manner to the three federal pension plans: RCMP, Canadian Forces, and the public service superannuation.
At no time did project expenditures exceed the approved funding levels. In fact, in each year of the project, actual expenditures fell below the approved funding levels set by Treasury Board. The RCMP was required to provide a formal submission annually that included firm estimates for the current year and projections for the three following years. As with any project, future year projections are subject to change as project requirements get further refined year after year.
The RCMP pension administration outsourcing project was no different in this regard, and the annual funding submission supported the progressive elaboration of the project specifications and requirements.
Project activities were also delayed for valid reasons, thus requiring the reprofiling of funding over various fiscal periods to correspond with the timeframe of when the actual work was to be completed. Again, all of this was fully covered in the Treasury Board submissions and supporting rationale documents.
I welcome the opportunity to provide full and complete responses to any questions members of this committee may have.
Thank you.