Review of the Handling of Public
Money Project — Final Report
2.0 BACKGROUND
National Headquarters (HQ), specifically, the Accounting Operations Division of the Finance and Administration Branch (F&A), is the primary contact for the CPCs with respect to the operation of HPM. F&A provides the necessary financial procedures, advice and follow-up to enquiries to the users of the system at the CPCs. The CPCs have a direct line reporting relationship to the director general of the Departmental Delivery Network (DDN).
Through HPM, citizenship and immigration fees are collected using a centralized electronic payment system based on the Canadian Payment Association’s Rule H6. Under such a system, cost recovery and other fees are collected through financial institutions and processed by a concentrator bank acting as an intermediary between all financial institutions and CIC. Funds are directly deposited into the account of the Receiver General for Canada by the concentrator bank. The National Bank of Canada (NBC) was awarded the contract and selected as the concentrator bank for HPM.
When submitting an application within Canada to the CPCs, clients must use the HPM receipt included with the application kit and pay all fees at the NBC or another designated financial institution. This process eliminates the need to handle payments at the CPCs. Clients must then attach one stamped receipt to the application and send it to the CPC and keep the other copy for their records. As the service provider, the NBC, upon receipt of payments from financial institutions, captures payment stub information with a special computerized optical scanning device and transfers the funds to the federal government daily. CPCs accept only HPM as payment for applications submitted within Canada. HPM does not apply to fees paid at visa offices, immigration fees collected at local CIC offices or fees for citizenship applications from abroad.
A CPC validates each HPM receipt and processes the application. In addition, CIC receives an electronic information file from Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). This electronic data interchange file contains operational and financial data on transactions processed by the NBC. The scanned picture of the HPM receipt is also sent to the Department on a CD-ROM every two weeks. Bank costs are recovered through a charge per transaction to CIC and PWGSC.
All applications to CPCs accompanied by non-HPM forms of payment are to be returned to the applicant, along with a request to resubmit the application (instructions and receipt are enclosed) with an HPM receipt. Last year, CPC Sydney received approximately 258,000 citizenship applications (193,000 grants, 55,000 proofs and 10,000 search forms); CPC Mississauga received approximately 66,000 applications (not including payments for back-end right of landing fees (ROLF); and CPC Vegreville received approximately 258,000 applications (224,000 visitor applications and 34,000 immigrant applications). It should be noted that the number of HPM receipts does not equal the number of applications, since one HPM receipt can cover multiple applications and there are exceptions to paying by HPM.
Overall, the HPM system uses the NBC as a partner in the process of collecting fees for domestic mail-in applications; provides management information to the CPCs; provides financial management information to CIC HQ; uses a data warehouse for management information reports; provides a platform to enable the migration to a new corporate financial system and the introduction of accrual accounting methods; and provides a common repository for reporting of all CPC public money revenues.
- Date Modified:
