2006 May Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada

The Department should establish an appropriate system for risk scoring of delinquent debts, develop debtor profiles and customize collection procedures as required (paragraph 29.64).

The Department should introduce procedures for collecting on all large debts soon after they become due (paragraph 29.75).

The Department should monitor the number of danger-of-loss cases referred to legal counsel by collectors, the number presented to courts and the extent to which favourable judgments are granted, and should assess the extent to which legislative provisions are sufficient to shelter the Crown from potential loss (paragraph 29.75).

The Department should establish clear standards for assessing, documenting and verifying information pertaining to debtors' ability to pay, together with expected time frames for making and updating such assessments. The Department should monitor collectors' adherence to such standards (paragraph 29.80).

The Department should clearly define standards of performance at the collector level and institute procedures to monitor collectors' adherence to such standards. Performance standards would include such things as nature and frequency of debtor contacts, time frames for resolving accounts, and use of legal action and other methods to collect amounts outstanding (paragraph 29.85).

The Department should assess the feasibility of using standard codes as a means of identifying and aggregating collection action taken by collectors in a timely, summarized manner and capturing results associated with those actions (paragraph 29.91).

Actual dollars collected and dollars written off should be tracked separately for individual collectors and teams and taken into account when assessing collectors' performance (paragraph 29.91)

The Department should monitor time spent by collectors in both cash-generating and non-cash-generating activities (paragraph 29.91).

The Department should conduct an annual review of all of its accounts and write off amounts that are deemed uncollectible. In estimating the realizable portion of tax debts remaining in inventory, the Department should consider the age of unpaid assessments, as well as remissions and other adjustments that can reduce the balance of reported amounts outstanding (paragraph 29.106).