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1993 Report of the Auditor General of Canada

Assistant Auditor General: Richard B. Fadden
Responsible Auditor: Henno Moenting

Main Points

17.1 The legal services that government requires are extensive and important. The Department of Justice provides those services to the federal government. In doing so, it develops and implements policy, drafts laws, provides legal advice and represents the government in court.

17.2 Our audit focussed on legal advisory and litigation services. These services are important to Canadians, to Parliament and to the government inasmuch as they:

• affect individual rights and freedoms;
• help ensure that public affairs are administered in accordance with the law;
• inform government departments and agencies of the legal implications of policy and program decisions;
• defend the government against claims and help recover moneys owing to it; and
• help prevent disputes or help resolve them if they occur.

17.3 Despite increased resources allocated to the Department in recent years, client demands are starting to exceed the Department's ability to respond to them fully and effectively. As a result, unless there are significant changes in the way the Department manages its activities, we believe its capacity to do what Parliament has mandated it to do - to protect and promote the legal interests of the Crown - will be undermined.

17.4 At the time of our audit, the Department did not have a corporate plan. In order to plan and to undertake other essential management functions, the Department will need to develop systems to collect basic information about workload, costs and performance.

17.5 Client departments and agencies pay for, or provide, about 30 percent of the total resources used by the Department to deliver litigation and legal services. This arrangement undermines responsibility and accountability, and reduces the Department's incentive to use the most cost-effective means of delivering services.

17.6 The government spends more than $40 million a year on Crown agents - private sector lawyers working under contract to help do the Department's work. Mechanisms in place to appoint agents and oversee their work should be improved to ensure the protection of the Crown's interests.

17.7 The Department recognizes information technology's potential to help deal with the challenges it faces. Ambitious plans foresee the investment of $78 million over an eight-year period to 1996-97. The Department will need to get key things right in managing this investment if the opportunities are to be realized.

17.8 Parliament receives little information on workload or performance, and only partial information on the cost of delivering litigation and legal advisory services. Because information is provided to Parliament on a departmental basis, and not on an activity basis that cuts across departments and agencies, the Department's Part III of the Estimates does not report all resources used to deliver these activities.

Introduction

17.10 But the government's activities go much further than those of large private sector organizations. For instance, the government proposes legislation, regulates, enforces laws, prosecutes offenders, negotiates and administers treaties and agreements, conducts international relations and promotes national unity. Its activities may affect society as a whole or fundamental issues of individual rights and freedoms.

17.11 Because the government operates largely through the use of legal powers, the legal services it requires are both extensive and important. The Department of Justice (the Department) has a virtual monopoly on providing those services to the federal government. As a result, its influence on Canadian society is important and pervasive.

Background

The Department develops and implements policy, drafts laws, provides legal advice and represents the government in court

• plans, develops and implements government policies and programs related to the administration of justice within federal jurisdiction; the Department has a lead policy role in areas such as the Criminal Code and criminal procedure, family and youth law, human rights and aboriginal justice;
• drafts legislation and regulations, and prepares legal documents for federal departments and agencies;
• reviews all proposed legislation and regulations to ensure their consistency with the Constitution and the Canadian Bill of Rights ;
• negotiates treaties, implements treaty obligations, participates in international fora and represents foreign states in court;
• sees that the affairs of government are administered in accordance with the law;
• provides legal advice to the government and to client departments and agencies; and
• conducts all litigation for or against the Crown or any department at all levels of provincial and federal courts and before various administrative bodies, in both the civil and common law systems.

The Department spends nearly $500 million a year and employs over 2000 people

17.14 The Department has its headquarters in Ottawa. At the time of our audit there were 47 legal services units in client departments and agencies (mainly in the National Capital Region), nine regional offices and two sub-offices.

• Departmental Legal Services Units are located on the premises of client departments and agencies, where staff deliver services broadly analogous to those provided by corporate counsel in the private sector.
• Regional offices and sub-offices undertake all forms of litigation and prosecutions. Regional offices also provide legal advisory services to local offices of client departments and agencies, and most undertake property and commercial transactions.
• Headquarters staff conduct litigation of national importance, provide advice, co-ordination and functional direction to regional offices and Departmental Legal Services Units, develop legal policy, and draft legislation. Headquarters also functions as a "regional office" responsible for criminal prosecutions and litigation in the National Capital Region, and provides central management and administrative services.

The Charter and other developments have profoundly changed the Department's environment

17.17 The Charter, together with social forces that supported it and have been reinforced by it, has affected the nature and extent of the Department's work:

• Canada is becoming an increasingly litigious society as individuals and interest groups assert their rights.
• Canadians expect more of the justice system, including its accessibility and responsiveness.
• The Charter has led to a greater role for the judiciary in public policy. Laws, policies and programs are open to challenge, and the potential policy and financial implications of court decisions can be significant.
• The law is evolving more quickly than in the past. In addition, the sheer volume of legislation and regulations is growing.

17.19 Largely because of the factors outlined above, the Department faces a critical challenge: it needs to respond to a revolution in the law and in society at a time when there are increasing constraints on resources.

Audit Scope

17.21 We also audited the Department's policies and practices in managing and accounting for resources used in litigation and legal advisory services, because of the growing volume and complexity of work at a time of resource constraint. This combination of forces has increased pressure on the Department to make the most effective and efficient use of available resources. At issue is not just the rapidly increasing cost of litigation and legal advisory services, but the risk that the quality of the Department's legal services to the government could be compromised.

17.22 The Department has made, and plans to make, significant investments in information technology over the next few years. We reviewed the management of information technology because of its potentially important role in supporting the Department's service delivery and management responsibilities.

Observations and Recommendations

Legal Advisory Services

17.24 The Department has a responsibility to see that public affairs are administered in accordance with the law. Legal advice to client departments and agencies is designed to help them achieve their policy and program objectives, consistent with broader legal interests. In giving advice, counsel must take account of government-wide legal interests and the objectives and policies of the Minister of Justice. Sound legal advice on proposed courses of action can reduce the possibility of subsequent disputes and litigation, and their attendant costs.

17.25 Exhibit 17.3 shows person-years allocated by the Department to the delivery of legal advisory services over the last 10 years. The increase of 22 percent in the last two years of that period, from 367 in 1990-91 to a forecasted 451 in 1992-93, is particularly striking. Without adjusting for inflation, corresponding expenditures by the Department increased 110 percent over the 10-year period, from $19.2 million in 1983-84 to a forecasted $40.4 million in 1992-93.

Basic management control information on workload and costs is lacking

17.27 At the time of our audit, Departmental Legal Services Units, Headquarters and regional offices had few systems to track legal advisory services workload and costs. As a result, the Department cannot clearly demonstrate to Treasury Board or to clients the growing demand for legal advisory services, the resource consequences, or the Department's productivity. Nor can changes in the nature and cost of services be tracked. It is difficult for the Department to justify resource requirements or to know whether resources are allocated fairly among Departmental Legal Services Units and other units. Similarly, the Department is ill-equipped to analyze and choose among service delivery options, such as changes in resource mix, or cost recovery.

17.28 The Department has recently developed a "work profiling" system to capture time spent by Departmental Legal Services Unit lawyers by project and category of work. This system was being implemented during our audit. Its aim is to gather information needed to set priorities, to obtain required resources and to allocate them to priority uses. We believe the development of this system is an important step toward overcoming a chronic lack of basic information.

Department's response: The work profiling system is now producing information essential for the effective allocation of resources to priority areas served by the Department's Legal Services Sector. Information needed to show the impact of our work is being defined by our Department's "Service to The Client Task Force".

Clients are generally satisfied with the quality of service

17.30 The Department has formal and informal systems and practices to help ensure useful, clear and consistent advice, which reflects the broader legal interests of the government and the Crown. Perhaps the most important of these is a staff of legal professionals. Others include the co-ordination and leadership provided by specialized functional groups at Headquarters, informal communications among Departmental Legal Services Units and other units delivering advice, peer and supervisory review of opinions in some cases, and reasonable access to legal and other research materials.

17.31 We interviewed about 40 individual clients of legal advisory services. Most were satisfied with the quality of the advice they received. These findings were similar to the results of the Department's 1990 and 1993 client satisfaction surveys.

17.32 We found, and many client managers confirmed, that delivery of legal advisory services has become more client-oriented in recent years. For example, heads of Departmental Legal Services Units usually participate as full members of clients' management committees. This allows them to provide early advice on the legal implications of policy and program options being considered as well as to monitor client satisfaction. The Department has also sought to increase clients' awareness of legal matters and trends through publications such as the Justice Echo and by training under the Legal Awareness Program.

There are insufficient systematic processes to manage or measure timeliness of service

17.34 Despite the perceived increase in service orientation, our interviews with client managers and the 1990 and 1993 client satisfaction surveys indicated that some were concerned about timeliness of service. Client managers told us that they expected a timely answer to their queries or, failing that, a projected response date and a contact name. However, these expectations were not always met. Some would like to see mutually accepted service standards established.

Department's response: In conformity with Treasury Board Policy, the Department is pursuing a phased approach to the development of service standards. In partnership with our clients, we continually refine mechanisms to increase the frequency with which we meet client expectations. While we are pleased with the overall results of the most recent client satisfaction survey in which 83 percent of clients indicate that the services we provided over the last year were "very good" or better, we will continue to take every opportunity to improve performance.

Responsibility and accountability for resources are divided

17.36 Responding to priorities. When workloads and priorities change, the Department cannot readily reallocate resources because borrowed resources usually come with the condition that they must remain dedicated to the client. One possible outcome is that resources may not be allocated according to priorities but, rather, according to the ability of clients to provide resources.

17.37 Incentives. As well as reducing managerial flexibility, the current resource arrangements reduce incentives for managing legal advisory services in the most cost-effective manner. For example, they reduce the need for the Department to justify total resource requirements to Treasury Board. In addition, there is less incentive for the Department to explore alternative resource mixes, such as different ratios among Justice lawyers, Crown agents, paralegal staff and support staff, as possible means to improve service or to reduce costs.

17.38 Client attitudes. Some client managers we interviewed resented the existing arrangements. They believe that without information on workload volumes and costs, the Department finds it easier to justify resource requirements to clients than to Treasury Board. They stated that they feel compelled to provide resources to the Department in order to get the services they need. They believe the Department's mandate is to provide legal advisory services to departments and agencies, and that it should have the resources to fulfil that mandate.

17.39 Managing people. Reviews by the Department and our own observations point to problems in people management. These include: the failure of either the clients or the Department to take full responsibility for career planning and training of borrowed employees; difficulties in establishing long-term human resource plans; widely varying ratios of support staff to lawyers among Departmental Legal Services Units; and the isolation of borrowed support staff who have no clear sense of belonging either to the Department of Justice or to the department or agency that employs them.

17.40 Information technology. At the time of our audit, the responsibility for planning and implementing information technology was not clear. Client departments usually provided equipment, software and support. The Department also contributed some software. The results were a lack of consistency in hardware, software and support among Departmental Legal Services Units, and between them and the rest of the Department, as well as a failure to harmonize the use of information technology. For example, the importance of rapid communications in a department as decentralized as the Department of Justice cannot be overemphasized. Staff in the Departmental Units must be able to communicate readily not only with their clients, but also with other units of the Department of Justice, including Headquarters, other Departmental Legal Services Units and regional offices. However, despite efforts by the Department to install an appropriate system, many officers in Departmental Legal Services Units told us they could not communicate with other units in the Department by electronic mail.

Department's response: Some of the costs of providing legal services to departments and agencies are shared with our clients. The Auditor General has raised a number of issues relating to the nature and consequences of this partnership in legal services. The Department will undertake a study of those and the matters related to resourcing of legal services. This study will be designed to identify systematically the positive and negative features of current arrangements and options to them.

More attention is needed to formalizing partnerships with client departments and agencies

17.42 In most cases, arrangements or understandings concerning the Department's relationship with clients have not been documented. We believe it is important for the Department to have clear understandings on resource issues as well as the nature and extent of services to be provided. Agreements could also cover items such as service standards, performance information to be reported to the client, arrangements for requesting legal advisory services, accommodation, information technology, and training for client staff.

Litigation Services

17.44 The Department is involved in three broad types of litigation - civil litigation, criminal prosecutions and tax litigation. We excluded tax litigation from our audit because much of the Department's work in that regard was covered in Chapter 21 of our 1992 Report.

17.45 Civil litigation cases involve a wide range of issues, from damage claims to contract disputes and public law issues such as native land claims, refugee determination and "Charter challenges" to federal legislation. Criminal law and procedure are within the exclusive legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada. However, provincial attorneys general prosecute most offences under the Criminal Code . The Department prosecutes offences under a variety of other federal statutes - offences such as drug trafficking and income tax evasion. The Department is also responsible for all criminal prosecutions in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

17.46 Although most litigation is handled in regional offices, Headquarters is responsible for litigation of national importance. In that capacity, it both advises and directs regional offices and conducts litigation related to criminal, tax and civil law, including such areas as constitutional, human rights, official language rights, international and environmental law. It also prosecutes war crimes and crimes against humanity.

17.47 The Department has a Litigation Committee, composed of Headquarters' senior litigation managers and certain other staff. This committee has ultimate, not immediate, responsibility for supervising all litigation. The committee monitors important cases to which the Attorney General is a party, reviews recommendations to appeal important cases, reviews proposals for the Attorney General to intervene in cases, and selects counsel to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Department has systems and practices to help ensure that it protects Crown interests and acts in accordance with consistent policy positions

• The Department specifies the types of litigation that must be carried out by departmental counsel and those that should or could be carried out by Crown agents.
• The Department has recently published the Crown Counsel Policy Manual that provides, among other things, direction on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.
• The Department has Litigation and Charter committees and a Native Advisory Group to provide direction on significant litigation and policy issues.
• The Department has national co-ordinators for Charter, environmental and native litigation, and an Office of National Strategy for Drug Prosecutions.
• Litigation reports summarizing important cases are distributed throughout the Department.
• A large proportion of the professional staff are senior practitioners. Further, our interviews indicated considerable informal networking among departmental litigators.

The Department's control over Crown agents needs to be strengthened

17.50 Like departmental counsel, Crown agents have broad discretionary powers when prosecuting cases on behalf of the Attorney General. For example, agents have the power to stay proceedings and to negotiate pleas and sentences. Their decisions can affect the liberty of individuals and the effective enforcement of the law. Because of the significance of their work, it is important for the Department to have adequate control over Crown agents. We found that the Department does not have this control.

17.51 Selecting, appointing and dismissing agents. Contracts for the performance of legal services may be entered into only by or under the authority of the Minister of Justice. These contracts are not subject to the Government Contracts Regulations, which provide for some transparency by outlining the circumstances and manner in which bids are to be solicited. Although there is a mechanism for consultation between managers in the Department and the Minister's office concerning the selection, appointment and dismissal of agents, these matters are ultimately the responsibility of the Minister of Justice. Therefore, the Minister, rather than departmental managers, has primary responsibility and accountability for agents' performance.

17.52 Supervising agents. According to its 1993-94 Estimates (Part III), the Department retained 3200 Crown agents in 1992. Beyond monitoring what agents are doing, supervision extends to providing the support and guidance they need - responding to their requests and ensuring they are informed of, and acting in accordance with, the Department's positions.

17.53 The Department has concluded that, other than in exceptional cases, Crown agents lack the orientation, the specialized expertise and the national connections and presence required for some particularly important, complex and sensitive types of litigation. As a result, it has specified the classes of work that must be done by departmental counsel and those that should or could be contracted to Crown agents. However, we were told that because of resource shortages in the Department, agents sometimes litigate cases that the Department's policy requires to be handled by in-house counsel. There is no information on how frequently this happens or on what the consequences are.

17.54 Departmental documents and our interviews with staff indicate that in most cases standing agents receive little supervision. We recognize that for the majority of routine cases little supervision is required; it would not be cost-effective to scrutinize each and every case being handled by a Crown agent. Nevertheless, the Department needs, and recognizes the need, to have at least some systematic information on what agents are doing and how they are performing. Some lawyers in regional offices indicated that they may not even be aware of cases in their regions being handled by standing agents unless and until they get a request for advice.

17.55 The Department should strengthen its management of Crown agents.

Department's response: We have had many of the matters relating to the use of crown agents reported by the Auditor General under review for many years. About two years ago, the Department struck a senior level Steering Committee to develop and direct a program to improve our management, control, payment and supervision of agents. As a result of the work of that Committee, we have identified the substantive and managerial areas in need of change, developed plans to address them and are pursuing them as a priority activity.

Basic management control information is lacking

17.57 The Department has been aware of this problem for some time. A 1987 evaluation of litigation services revealed that the Department had no way of counting the number of cases handled by its staff and agents. Consequently, it could not begin to assess its workload. With respect to civil and criminal litigation, the situation remains much the same today.

17.58 Information for planning and resource allocation. The 1987 evaluation of litigation services concluded that it was essential for the Department to make reasonable planning projections about future workloads and to "develop the means to allocate resources more rationally" among and within offices. The Department still does not have the means to do this.

17.59 To forecast future resource requirements, an organization must know its workload, as well as the resources expended on past and present workloads. The Department has only limited information on its litigation workload and does not have any information on the resources required to handle various types of litigation.

17.60 Regional offices request resources as part of the Department's multi-year operational planning process. But there are no standard data to support these requests. We recognize that quantitative workload indicators cannot perfectly reflect the actual workload of regional offices. However, the Department's ability to manage its workload and fairly allocate resources at the corporate and local-office levels is impaired by the absence of standard data on the number and types of matters handled and their cost.

17.61 Information for analysis. The Department recognizes the need to seek alternatives to litigation and to the way it delivers services. To that end, it has undertaken some relevant studies. However, lack of information makes analysis difficult. For example, the Department recently completed a comparative analysis of costs for in-house counsel and Crown agents in respect of certain types of cases. The major difficulty in carrying out this study was that the quantity and quality of management information was, according to the authors, "extremely poor". The authors noted:

"... it is clear that better record-keeping and data collection will be needed. Without more detailed data... the Department will never be in a position to assess the cost-effectiveness of its work in a satisfactorily definitive manner."

17.62 This comment could also apply when considering other service delivery options. We note that the Department has begun to examine alternatives, including: cost recovery; greater use of paralegal staff; the use of alternative means of dispute resolution; more formal arrangements for sharing drug prosecution responsibilities with the provinces; and the "Director of Public Prosecutions" model used in some jurisdictions to enhance the independence of the Attorney General. The Department recognizes that a thorough analysis of alternatives, and decisions about them, will require reliable information.

17.63 Information for accountability. Departmental managers at all levels lack systematic, quantitative performance information with regard to litigation. This limits their ability to manage for improved performance and to account for results. We recognize that it is intrinsically difficult to measure performance in litigation, but note that experience in some other jurisdictions indicates that the difficulties are not always insurmountable. We note, too, that the Department has developed a draft Operational Plan Framework that identifies potential performance indicators such as the cost of cases litigated, the number of cases litigated per lawyer (by level of complexity), client satisfaction and case outcomes. However, the Department does not yet have the information required to make effective use of these kinds of performance indicators.

Department's response: The Auditor General has recognized that " ...It is intrinsically difficult to measure performance in litigation." Quantification gives some appreciation of the work being done, but in order to give a complete picture, qualitative assessments will continue to be important.

It must be noted that, in general, both legal services and litigation provided by the Department are in response to a specific need of the client at a given time. Experience shows that it is extremely difficult to forecast specific resource requirements that fluctuate substantially from year to year depending on factors often out of our control. We will develop a plan to secure the historical information relating to workload, costs, and performance that is useful and necessary.

There is insufficient incentive to manage the cost of litigation services

17.65 In addition to paying for Crown agents, some client departments provide funds for the Department to hire lawyers who will work exclusively on litigation involving the client. There are approximately 40 of these positions. We estimate that expenditures by clients on Crown agents and on lawyers' salaries added approximately $34 million to the $95 million spent by the Department on litigation in 1992-93.

17.66 As we noted in assessing similar arrangements for legal advisory services, the divided responsibility for costs does not promote accountability. Nor does it ensure an adequate incentive to seek the most cost-effective means of delivering service.

17.67 We noted earlier that resource pressures sometimes force the Department to use Crown agents to litigate cases that the Department's own policies require to be handled by in-house counsel. With control of the funds that clients now spend on agents, the Department would have greater flexibility in using agents or in-house counsel, as appropriate. If the profile of litigation work required more in-house counsel and fewer agents, or if in some areas of the country it would be more cost-effective to use in-house counsel, the Department could use funds otherwise spent on agents to hire additional counsel. However, even with increased flexibility, reliable information would be a prerequisite for making decisions that lead to the most cost-effective use of resources.

Information Technology Management

The Department will have invested about $78 million in information systems in the eight-year period ending in 1996-97

17.70 The Department anticipates that, in addition to the new funding approved by Treasury Board, it will invest a total of $29 million from its own budget by 1996-97, principally for managing the strategy. Therefore, by the time the Information Management Strategy is scheduled to be implemented in 1997, the Department will have spent a total of about $78 million.

17.71 Exhibit 17.5 shows how the $78 million will be used. It shows the funds allocated to Phase I, to the main "business areas" and applications in Phase II, and to project management and support.

17.72 The Department has agreed to repay Treasury Board's Phase II investment of $33.7 million by 2005-06 out of anticipated productivity gains, by cutting $4.5 million annually from its budget, starting in 1997-98. We note that with such a long payback period, the technology and applications will likely be obsolete before their cost has been repaid.

Information technology plans are ambitious; it will be important to get key things right

17.74 This does not mean that it cannot be done. It does mean, however, that there are no successful models to emulate and very little experience available. The strategy as a whole, and individual projects, will have to be managed carefully to achieve the objectives of the strategy. Several aspects deserve close attention.

17.75 Senior management commitment and attention. Private- and public-sector experience in developing successful systems consistently shows that ongoing commitment and attention by senior management is essential. The Department has recently taken steps to demonstrate senior management's commitment.

17.76 The Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management, Policy and Programs has been designated Project Leader for the Information Management Strategy. The Project Leader is accountable directly to the Deputy Minister for the overall management and success of the strategy. In August 1992, the Department established an Information Management Advisory Committee, composed of senior managers from each of the sectors; the committee gives advice to the Project Leader in setting priorities and allocating resources.

17.77 The responsibility, authority and accountability for the Information Management Strategy are therefore clear. However, we are concerned that the Project Leader, who is charged with the overall management and success of the strategy, has many other responsibilities - personnel and financial management, internal audit and evaluation, security services, administration and corporate planning. In early 1993, the Project Leader assumed additional responsibility for a variety of activities and major expenditures when the Corporate Policy and Programs group was amalgamated with the Corporate Management Sector. The Project Leader's wide range of diverse and important responsibilities calls into question the amount of attention that he can reasonably be expected to give to managing the Information Management Strategy.

17.78 Integration of information technology plans with the plans for litigation and legal services. At the time of our audit, the Department did not have comprehensive plans for litigation and legal services. As a result, it has not been possible to integrate plans. The Department has recently decided to implement a corporate planning process that will include developing plans for the Litigation and Legal Services Sectors.

17.79 When these Sector plans are prepared, it will be important to integrate information technology plans with them to ensure that the plans will reinforce each other. For example, plans for specific operational applications of information technology must ensure the capture of information needed for corporate management purposes. However, the Department is still identifying its management information needs.

17.80 Analyzing and simplifying work. Many organizations are starting to recognize that simply automating existing processes rarely produces significant gains. Much of the real and continuing benefit from information technology is realized when work processes are closely analyzed. Such analysis can lead to unproductive processes being eliminated or changed, or completely new ways of service delivery being identified that make optimum use of information technology.

17.81 The Department is currently involved in a major effort to put in place an automated case management system for litigation at an estimated cost of $10 million. The Department expects this system to improve efficiency significantly. But the Department has not analyzed existing litigation practices to determine whether these could be streamlined before selecting an automated case management system.

17.82 The role of "systems owners". "Systems owners" are responsible for ensuring that information technology delivers what front-line legal professionals need to cope with work demands. The Department expects key systems users to assume the role of systems owners, with ultimate responsibility for the success of specific systems development initiatives.

17.83 However, at the time of our audit, the management framework identified in planning documents extended only to technical support resources provided by the Information Management and Technology Division in the Corporate Management, Policy and Programs Sector. The systems owners had not been identified, and their pivotal role, which will require freeing them from some of their regular professional work, had yet to be articulated or planned in detail.

17.84 Impact on people. The literature and our own interviews in the Department show that many lawyers are conservative and sceptical about using information technology. This underlines the importance of accompanying a systems development effort that could fundamentally alter the work of the Department's staff with a thorough analysis of potential impacts on people and with plans for managing the change.

17.85 For managing the change, some of the questions that need to be answered are - how will work change? what new skills will be required? how will new skills be acquired? will the resource mix have to change? who will need to be trained, and when? what support arrangements will be needed? We found that the Department has not yet undertaken such analyses in most key areas that will be affected by planned projects.

Department's response: The Department's Information Technology plans cover the next five years. A comprehensive approach to their development was taken so that we would be able to chart and take account of the full range of what we were to do and accomplish. As a result, the plan is necessarily general on the systems development process we will follow, including the modelling that will be done in order to identify work that can be simplified or eliminated. The projects and activities in that plan interrelate. In order to ensure they will be managed in an integrated, fully effective way, a new directorate has been created reporting to the Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management, Policy and Programs. The Director General, Information Management and Technology and the organization and people supporting her have been assigned important responsibilities in managing the Information Management Strategy. The Assistant Deputy Minister, however, will continue to be the project leader and in this role to chair the Information Management Advisory Committee so as to ensure that senior managers are aware of the responsibilities they must discharge, as systems owners, as the Information Technology Plan's implementation evolves.

Corporate Issues

The Department has started to respond to the challenges it faces

17.87 A series of improvement initiatives is being undertaken within the context of the "Justice in the 1990s" program. This program comprises a number of projects in three priority areas: managing the law, managing resources and managing people. Other elements of the Department's response focus on a Shared Management Agenda with Treasury Board and the results of a review of the justice and legal system carried out jointly by the Department of Justice, the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Office of the Comptroller General in 1992.

17.88 Under the Shared Management Agenda, the Department has agreed to work toward establishing processes for setting priorities, managing workload and allocating resources. In December 1992, Treasury Board approved recommendations arising from the first phase of the joint review of the justice and legal system, many of which deal with matters we addressed in our audit. The recommendations call on the Department to: review alternative dispute resolution mechanisms; examine and adjust its resource mix; examine the use of market-based incentives to rationalize demand for service; develop a management framework for assessing priorities and allocating resources; and seek ways to increase efficiency through automation. Work on these and other recommendations of the joint study is under way in the Department.

A corporate planning process is being implemented

17.90 At the time of our audit the Department had neither a corporate plan nor equivalent plans at the Sector level. However, in January 1993 the Department's Executive Committee decided to implement a priority-setting and planning process. The key elements of this process are the development of the first corporate plan for 1994-95, Sector plans consistent with the corporate plan, and operational plans at other management levels, as determined by Sector Heads.

17.91 In earlier sections dealing with legal advisory services and litigation, we identified a serious lack of basic management information on workload, costs and performance. Such management information will be critical in setting priorities and allocating resources in the context of the proposed corporate planning process.

The Department will have difficulty getting full benefit from Operating Budgets

17.93 However, the lack of management information severely limits the Department's ability to make decisions about the most appropriate resource mix. Further, the funding arrangements for the delivery of litigation and legal advisory services described earlier, under which client departments and agencies control about 30 percent of total resources, reduce the Department's flexibility to change the resource mix. We are concerned that this combination of circumstances will impede the flexible resource management that Operating Budgets are meant to facilitate.

Accountability to Parliament needs strengthening

17.95 Our review of the Department's Part III of the Estimates shows that Parliament receives little information on the Department's workload or performance. With respect to legal advisory services, the 1993-94 Part III reports only the finding from the 1990 client satisfaction survey: that 85 percent of respondents were very satisfied with the services received. For litigation, Part III presents some information on the number of cases handled - for example: the number of appeals heard by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal in which the Crown was represented; the number of income tax appeals and tax evasion cases; and the number of extradition and rendition requests. However, these cases represent only a portion of the litigation workload.

17.96 Parliament is not aware of the full cost of delivering litigation and legal advisory services. As described earlier, significant proportions of the costs of these services are borne by client departments and agencies. The Department is not obliged to report in its Part IIIs the costs borne by client departments and agencies - and does not do so. Therefore, Parliament does not know these costs. We estimate conservatively that information available to Parliament for 1992-93, for example, understated the costs of delivering litigation services by 26 percent and legal advisory services by 40 percent.

Department's response: We have already noted our work on defining and meeting our current needs for information on workload, costs and performance. Once those are identified and systems have been put in place to meet them, we will be making significant changes to what we report in Part III of the Estimates. In the meantime, we will be reviewing the desirability of reporting total governmental expenditures on legal agents.

17.97 The Department should:

• define its minimum information needs for managing litigation and legal advisory services, and develop the means for collecting and reporting that information;
• seek full responsibility for the resources it uses to deliver litigation and legal advisory services; and
• improve its accountability to Parliament for delivering litigation and legal advisory services by providing Parliament with broad-based indicators of workload and performance.

There is urgency about the matters we have raised