Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to be able to respond to the Auditor General's report on economies and efficiencies as it relates to Correctional Service Canada.
CSC, Correctional Service Canada, fully agrees with the recommendations included in the Auditor General's report. We aim to improve upon our economies and efficiencies of services that we provide across the country in our institutions and in our parole offices from coast to coast.
The recommendations are clearly linked to the priority of making our government and our organization more effective and efficient while producing quality public service results for Canadians.
As noted in the report, Correctional Service Canada has already taken some action to improve its practices and is committed to addressing all the recommendations. I am confident that all the recommendations will be fully addressed over this coming fiscal year leading up to March 31, 2010. We will continue to remain transparent as we integrate the recommendations into our work and we will continue to ensure that we are as efficient as possible at all levels of management within our organization.
Progress has been achieved on addressing many of the recommendations, which also contribute to our transformation agenda, particularly in the area of finding greater efficiencies and effectiveness for the delivery of federal correctional services across the country. For those of you who may be unaware, the Correctional Service Canada transformation agenda was developed to respond to independent review panel recommendations submitted to the Minister of Public Safety in 2007. The report included 109 recommendations, all with the overall goal of improving the public safety results for Canadians. As we implement the various recommendations from the review panel's report, we will be exploring opportunities for economies and efficiencies in many different areas. We'd be glad to explain some of those to you.
As well, CSC completed a strategic review in 2008, and over the next four years we will be implementing the decisions arising from that process, which are linked to the economy and efficiency of services within our organization.
Correctional Service Canada is committed to ensuring that our business practices are conducted in accordance with the laws and policies regarding the use of public funds. One of our key priorities is to continue to strengthen management practices in the areas of financial management, human resource management, and values and ethics, in order to ensure that we operate with accountability, integrity, and openness.
I would like to briefly comment on the recommendations within the Auditor General's report.
CSC agrees with the recommendations, as I pointed out, concerning centralized purchasing. Correctional Service Canada accepts that several efficiencies and economies could be realized from centralized purchasing of certain food items and various goods that are used within the institutions across the country. As we move forward on this front, we will also do an assessment of the potential impact on smaller local economies to ensure that we keep a balance between economies and efficiencies on the one hand and centralized purchasing on the other. We will also attempt to balance the need for economies and efficiencies in our overall centralized purchasing approaches to ensure that they help and assist us in producing the effective public safety results that Canadians expect.
CSC is also part of a Public Works and Government Services Canada pilot to introduce changes to contracting procedures for construction and maintenance in an attempt to streamline the process and develop a stronger procurement organization. This will help us to develop a structured approach to manage purchasing and procurement generally, including detailed forward procurement planning. It will also assist us with strategic planning, as it will identify improved departmental procurement actions, efficiency gains, cost avoidance, and better general management use of Public Works and Government Services Canada tools, services, and best practices.
As most of you know, CSC is a very complex organization, as the nature of its mandate requires operations to run on a 24/7 basis. I'm sure you're all aware that overtime is a regular occurrence when operating a business that is never closed. The management of overtime can become quite complicated while balancing various operational issues, including training, emergency escorts, hospitalization of inmates, and emergency crisis situations such as riots or hostage-takings. We are committed to ensuring that overtime is kept to a minimum, that its cost is justified and approved, and that leave is managed in an effective manner. In order to do so, we are enhancing our monitoring and analysis of expenditures and alternatives to overtime, as well as financial and performance information related to all aspects of our operation.
I've asked that each of my regional deputy commissioners review overtime expenditures and management controls regularly at their management team meetings, and in turn we will monitor this at the national executive management committee meeting every quarter.
In closing, I wish to thank the committee for this opportunity to speak on CSC's efforts to improve on the economy and efficiency of its services. I welcome all of the questions you might have today.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.