Audit of the Immigration Program
Canadian Consulate General – Seattle
6.2. Mission Specific Guidelines on Cost Recovery
On July 30, 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and CIC issued a joint e-mail message regarding a new control procedure designed to ensure that malfeasance cases would be discovered and dealt with in a timely manner. (section removed), DFAIT now provides a statement from its Integrated Management System (IMS) of the CIC cost recovery general ledger accounts. The cost recovery officer reconciles this IMS statement with the cost recovery revenue. The DFAIT mission accountant maintains a binder of all CIC queries on the IMS statements and the DFAIT responses.
When DFAIT issues a refund cheque for an amount paid by an applicant in the current fiscal year, the amount is recorded in one of two general ledger accounts. The monthly IMS statement provided to CIC includes these two accounts. However, if the applicant paid the fee in a prior fiscal year, the refund amount is recorded in different general ledger accounts, which are not included in the statement provided by DFAIT.
Recommendations
11. CIC should discuss with DFAIT the possibility of including the general ledger accounts for refunds of prior year expenses in the IMS report.
Management Response
CIC and DFAIT are involved in ongoing discussions dealing with the entire range of issues related to collecting and reporting cost recovery funds at our missions. Unfortunately, the need for consultations and consensus agreement within each of the departments before changes are implemented has resulted in slower progress than anticipated.
The audit team’s recommendation has been noted and will receive due consideration in the discussions of how best to improve the collection and reporting of CIC cost recovery revenue at our missions.
- Date Modified:
