Audit of The Administration of Settlement Programs

Executive Summary

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) 2008–2009 risk-based audit plan identified the need for audit engagements in the areas of:

  • the Integration program – Administration of Grants and Contributions; and
  • the Immigration Contribution Accountability Measurement System (iCAMS) – Phase II.

The two engagements have been combined as part of this audit. The audit scope was comprised of settlement activity, including iCAMS, during fiscal year 2008–2009 at national headquarters (NHQ) and in the regions responsible for the delivery of the settlement programs.

We did not examine alternative funding arrangements with the provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba, or the federal grant provided to Quebec for settlement services. Agreements with the provinces will be examined as part of our audits of the management of relations with provinces and territories.

Settlement Programs

The settlement programs[Note 1] provide funding to eligible service provider organizations (SPOs) through contribution agreements (CAs) to deliver settlement services on behalf of CIC. These services are provided to eligible clients to facilitate their successful integration into Canadian society. Eligible clients include permanent residents, individuals who have been selected to become permanent residents, Convention refugees and protected persons, and live-in caregivers.

At the time of our audit, settlement programs funded by CIC were established under three distinct programs: the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program, the Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP) and the Host program. CIC renewed its terms and conditions and adjusted its settlement programming in 2008. These new terms and conditions took into consideration the findings of the Blue Ribbon Panel, a panel of experts tasked with the responsibility of reviewing the management of grants and contributions throughout the government. The new approach to settlement programs was intended to better correspond to newcomers’ needs by enabling SPOs to provide more flexible, coordinated and responsive programs in order to:

  • enhance flexibility, coordination and responsiveness in programs to better meet newcomer needs;
  • strengthen and more clearly demonstrate the link between settlement activities and improved newcomer outcomes; and
  • improve planning and assessment activities.

Total contribution funding available to SPOs and provinces for settlement programs (outside of Quebec) has grown from approximately $175 million in 2003–2004 to an expected $678.4 million in 2009–2010. In 2005–2006, CIC committed to the Government of Canada’s agenda to improve outcomes for immigrants. CIC restated its commitment to the successful integration of newcomers in its plans and priorities for 2007–2008. At the same time, substantial increases in investments in CIC by the Government of Canada reinforced the importance of settlement programs to newcomer settlement success. The additional funding provided new resources for CIC to develop and enhance its settlement programs and improve program accountability.

In past years, the Department decided to lapse some funding related to its settlement programs. One reason for this decision was to ensure that sufficient capacity was developed within the SPO community to properly deliver on commitments required under the Department’s CAs with SPOs. Also, over the past two years, the Department has been closely monitoring some SPOs who didn’t comply with the requirements of their contribution agreements with CIC. As a result, the Department decided to terminate or not renew the CAs with a number of these SPOs.

Settlement services are administered by the Department in all provinces and territories across Canada except Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba where the provinces are responsible for the delivery of these services.

About the Audit

The objective of the audit was to assess the adequacy of:

  • the governance framework over settlement programs;
  • the performance measurement framework over settlement programs; and
  • internal controls over the administration of transfer payment programs to ensure compliance with applicable policies.

The audit involved interviews with senior management and a review of relevant documents.
We also examined a sample of contribution agreements managed by the regions. In total, we looked at 121 agreements managed by 10 offices across the country. During fiscal year 2008–2009, the Department had 794 agreements.

The audit was conducted to be in accordance with the Government of Canada’s Policy on Internal Audit and the Institute of Internal Auditors International Professional Practices.

We found that:

  • Overall, the governance framework and processes in place for settlement programs were appropriate and operating as intended. We noted some opportunities for improvement which could strengthen the framework;
  • Performance information at the output level was available. CIC is in the early stages in terms of overall performance measurement of settlement programs at the outcome level. As a result, the performance measurement framework only partially met our expectations; and
  • Internal controls over settlement programs partially met our expectations. While CIC has well-documented processes for contribution agreements as well as clear practices and procedures for the monitoring and processing of claims, we found areas where the processes in place did not meet departmental guidelines. More specifically, the guidelines issued have not kept pace with the evolving program. We acknowledge that the recent rapid growth of the settlement programs is a contributing factor and note that the Department was working on updating its settlement manual and guidelines on risk-based project monitoring.

Our audit makes nine recommendations.

Overall Management Response

CIC welcomes the findings and agrees with the recommendations of this internal audit. The Department was awaiting its results to take stock of the impact of recent changes in program administration and to assess the efficiency of new accountability and due diligence processes that have been put in place in recent years within the program. The audit will also help us to determine any course corrections and outstanding issues that need to be addressed.

This audit covered fiscal year 2008–2009 in a critical period where the management of the settlement program was undergoing significant changes. The report acknowledges that the program has had to adjust to a massive increase in funding from approximately $175 million in 2003–2004 to about $650 million in 2010–2011 (excluding Quebec). Consequently, over a short period of time, the number of SPOs almost tripled and the number of contribution agreements managed by the Operations sector increased from some 300 to almost 1,000. Within this period of exponential growth, the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement — which by itself absorbs approximately 60% of the settlement program funding — was negotiated in 2005 and the implementation of this complex agreement led to valuable experience and lessons learned in the administration of settlement services, generally. The 2005–2006 fiscal year also witnessed significant departmental restructuring that resulted in splitting the policy and operational responsibilities and creating a new unit in the Operations sector: the Integration and Resettlement Program Delivery Division which oversees the management and coordination of delivery of CIC-funded settlement services. This reorganization, despite the best efforts, generated some minor disruptions in the administration of the program as many staff and budgets were transferred between areas.

In May 2008, the settlement program underwent a significant change when it renewed its terms and conditions and introduced the modernized approach to settlement services. The previous suite of program offerings had existed for many years. The new approach was designed to enable recipients to better respond to newcomer needs, and focuses on clearly demonstrating the link between settlement activities and newcomer outcomes.

To date, many new processes and mechanisms have been implemented to continue improving the administration of the expanded settlement program while strengthening accountability and transparency measures. It is recognized, however, that further improvements are warranted. The report points to monitoring requirements in a number of areas and the Department acknowledges that this is a subject requiring more systematic attention. The findings of the audit will require the collaboration and coordination of several branches for their implementation. Concrete measures that currently exist or that will be put in place, with set time lines and accountabilities, to specifically address each of the nine recommendations in this report are outlined in the management action plan in Appendix E.

Notes

1 Under the new terms and conditions approved in May 2008, the suite of CIC settlement programs is now referred to as the Settlement Program.

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