Vienna Mission
Final Audit Report

4.1 MANAGEMENT OF THE FUNCTION

The Vienna Mission’s immigration program is well managed. Despite a difficult transition period as a result of the Belgrade Mission’s closure, the Vienna Mission has significantly reduced processing backlogs and has met immigration targets for the year 2000.

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While the overall assessment of the management framework is quite positive, the introduction of a formal QA process and development of local operating procedures for staff reference would be desirable.

Organization

The IPM is supported by the operations manager (OM), the ICO and the MO (direct reporting relationships), as well as by four other CBOs reporting to the OM. Besides his or her own program responsibilities, each CBO is assigned responsibility for one of the satellite offices. Overall audit findings and results corroborate the IPM’s positive assessment of CBO and LES performance.

The organization is structured so that CBOs and DIOs have dedicated program assistants, who come from the pool of 23 locally engaged positions. This “clustering” arrangement works well and contributes to effective and efficient program delivery. Backup capabilities among staff are good, with the IPM being proactive in this area.

Planning, Reporting and Operations

The Vienna Mission’s 1999-2000 and 2000-01 International Region Immigration Management Plans (IRIMP) work plan objectives are relevant and address key operational areas (five of nine objectives deal directly with operational targets, processing standards and reduction in backlogs). These objectives also reflect the International Region’s (IR’s) benchmark priorities, as defined in the “priorities and trends for the IR” section of the 2000-01 IRIMP. At the time of the audit, the Vienna Mission’s work plan objectives had been fully or substantially met.

Operational productivity is closely monitored. The IPM and OM review and act on the detailed CAIPS reports generated every two weeks. Based on operational needs, special initiatives may be undertaken, such as setting aside paper screening days for the entire program staff. The IPM meets with individual officers frequently as required and meets more formally with the whole group approximately every six weeks. He also reviews all positive-negative discretion decisions. Vienna Mission staff meetings are held quarterly. On a monthly basis, the satellite offices generate activity reports highlighting any issues and provide statistics with explanations. Monthly IRIMP reports to IR provide summaries of the Vienna Mission’s monthly activity.

Operating Budget

The Vienna Mission’s 2000-01 revised operating budget of $352,600 is closely controlled. About $153,000 or 43 percent is budgeted for travel, with another $123,000 (35 percent) for LES emergency work and overtime. Due to the high cost of local airfare, whenever possible plans are made for two-week instead of one-week area trips, to achieve significant airfare reductions. LES overtime ($45,000) is utilized for work that is not part of the regular daily responsibilities. No overtime expense was incurred for CBOs. (Appendix A includes the full budget details.)

Quality Assurance

The IPM reviews exceptional and numerous “represented” cases and also encourages officers to bring forward cases for his review. A structured QA program, with documented results, would provide a more objective basis for assessing program integrity, including consistency of decisions, and for any corrective action. The case sampling should be random and should be sufficiently broad to cover the case load of each officer. Significant client service and QA initiatives are under way at this time in the department and these should be used even before a specific QA model is selected.

Recommendation 1

Establish a QA program. The sample of cases chosen for review should include all business lines and all officers. The basis for sample selection and the review results should be documented.

Management Response

Management agrees with this recommendation. Vienna has implemented a QA program. IR headquarters is in the process of developing a QA framework this fiscal year.

Operating Procedures

At present, the Vienna Mission lacks operating and desk procedures for staff reference. The IPM was planning to eventually develop such procedures, following position description reviews. Operating procedures would assure consistency of operating tasks and reduce reliance on verbal advice and guidance from individual staff members.

Recommendation 2

Develop operating and desk procedures for staff reference.

Management Response

Management agrees with this recommendation. Various existing instructions on internal operating procedures have already been assembled and put into an easily accessible hard copy format, which will evolve into a more comprehensive operations manual.

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