2007 February Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada

Corporate governance

3.27 The National Research Council Canada should advise the government that the Council has adopted the general profile for its ideal membership. To assist the government in appointing new Council members in a timely fashion, the National Research Council Canada should identify suitable candidates based on the criteria in the general profile.
(3.17–3.26)

The National Research Council Canada agrees with this recommendation and has taken or is in the process of taking a number of steps to address it. NRC will continue to advise the government of its view of the general profile for its ideal membership on Council to assist it in appointing new Council members in a timely fashion. NRC will also continue to develop and communicate lists of candidates based on this profile, to the Minister of Industry, the Industry Portfolio, as well as to the Privy Council Office.

3.28 The National Research Council Canada should clarify the role of the Council, at the corporate level and for members of the Council, in a manner that is consistent with the Council's approved new role and its mandate under the National Research Council Act.
(3.17–3.26)

The National Research Council Canada is in the process of clarifying Council's role as mandated by the National Research Council Act. This clarification, expected to be completed by the end of 2007, will be embedded thereafter in the orientation of new members.

Setting of corporate strategic direction

3.47 The National Research Council Canada should take action to ensure all critical milestones are met to develop the corporate business plan on a timely basis. It should also monitor closely the implementation of the NRC Strategy to ensure that the complexity and risks are recognized and properly addressed.
(3.33–3.46)

The National Research Council Canada agrees with this recommendation. As noted in the Report, the implementation of the NRC Strategy is a complex and challenging undertaking involving reviews of programs, processes, and resources. NRC is committed to implementing the NRC Strategy.

NRC's corporate business plan, which operationalizes the NRC Strategy, will be completed by 31 March 2007. NRC will continue to monitor its implementation for important milestones and risks.

Research management at the institute level

3.59 The National Research Council Canada should further develop and implement decision-making tools and templates for project selection, as part of the NRC Strategy. It should also improve the project documentation and information retrieval systems required to support these decisions.
(3.48–3.58)

The audit report identifies best practices that exist in the institutes the auditors examined. These best practices and others in the remaining institutes will continue to be developed and strengthened as part of the Planning, Performance and Resource Management (PPRM) project for implementing the NRC Strategy. Mechanisms will be developed as part of the next project planning cycle for 2007–08 to ensure their transfer and application throughout the National Research Council Canada. It should be noted, however, that peer review and external consultations are not always appropriate and would not always be performed. This is the case for matters of national security and client confidentiality.

Human resources management

3.73 The National Research Council Canada should, as soon as possible, clearly align and integrate its Human Resources Management regime with its strategic priorities as expressed in the NRC Strategy. The regime should link compensation, rewards, promotions, awards and other forms of recognition, recruitment, succession planning, and performance management.
(3.60–3.72)

The National Research Council Canada agrees with this recommendation and has already taken steps to address these issues as part of the "One NRC" implementation project of the NRC Strategy. NRC will integrate compensation, rewards, promotions, awards and other forms of recognition, recruitment, succession planning, and performance planning with the strategic priorities of the NRC Strategy. This will be done via NRC's business planning process. The NRC corporate business plan, which will be released in March 2007, will reflect NRC's priorities for the next three years and will capture key human resources requirements to deliver on those priorities.

It is anticipated that the strategies to address recruitment, succession planning, performance management, and compensation (as it applies to position-based classification) will be developed by mid-2007, while strategies to address rewards, promotions, compensation, awards and other forms of recognition will be completed by mid-2008. The priorities for addressing these human resources issues will be confirmed with the development of the NRC corporate business plan.

Performance measurement and reporting

3.81 The National Research Council Canada should expedite the completion of its Management, Resources and Results Structure, based on the existing corporate performance framework, and align it to the NRC Strategy. This would provide for meaningful performance information to be included in its 2007–08 Corporate Business Plan and future performance reports.
(3.74–3.80)

The National Research Council Canada is committed to developing an approved corporate performance framework based on the balanced scorecard approach and directly aligned to NRC's Strategy by 31 March 2007. The integration of the balanced scorecard with NRC's corporate business plan will provide performance measures and costs linked to the NRC Strategy.

The completion of the Management, Resources and Results Structure is scheduled for March 2008 and will be greatly expedited through the newly approved institute, program, and branch business planning process, which collects all of the information necessary to comply with the Treasury Board Secretariat Management, Resource and Results Structure policy.