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2002 December Report of the Auditor General of Canada

December 2002 Report—Chapter 6

Exhibit 6.4—Integrated Program Reporting—A Guide for Program Managers

Statistics Canada bases program reviews on a self-assessment process. The self-assessment process requires that the program manager conduct an examination of program issues and consult with program constituents as well as committees. The self-assessment and resulting strategic plan are then reviewed by senior management.

The integrated process focusses on the following elements:

Annual Consolidation of Indicators (ACI)

  • annual monitoring of programs,
  • involving division-based program-oriented performance indicators compiled by the Corporate Planning Division, and
  • including information on data accuracy from the Integrated Meta-database.

This information is to be provided to the Chief Statistician and is to be used as a reference in developing the Agency's performance reports to Parliament.

Biennial Program Report (BPR) and Quadrennial Program Report (QPR)

  • Once every two years, each program manager is to submit a report that reviews the program's performance and identifies strategic issues affecting the program.
  • The work will alternate between a biennial program report and a quadrennial program report.
  • The six characteristics of quality should be addressed. For example, statistical programs should discuss the degree to which the data correctly estimated or describe the quantities or the characteristics that the program was designed to measure.
  • Statistical programs should examine basic accuracy estimates (e.g., coverage error, sampling error, response or imputation rates, or size of revisions).
  • Analytical programs should discuss the accuracy of their main data sources.

Intended for the Chief Statistician, the report is primarily a tool for communication between program managers and senior management but will also be used to communicate program issues to interested parties outside Statistics Canada. Follow-up is normally in the form of written feedback from the Chief Statistician. In QPR years, the reports are presented to the joint Program Evaluation and Corporate Planning Committees.

Source: Adapted from Statistics Canada, Integrated Program Reporting: A Guide for Program Managers, 2001