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In no uncertain terms, auditor general Michael Ferguson laid bare last month his belief that a “broken government culture” enabled the Phoenix pay system fiasco to play out, despite bureaucratic safeguards that should have been enough to prevent the failure.
Auditor general Michael Ferguson
However, after explaining the “why” of Phoenix — “an obedient public service that fears mistakes and risk,” unwilling or unable to hear and convey “hard truths” — in a message accompanying the audit of its building and implementation, Ferguson left it up to the federal government to puzzle out a remedy.
That solution depends on who you ask.
THE FORMER PBO: New leadership needed
Kevin Page, president and chief executive of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, proposed a stark fork in the bureaucracy’s road forward.
“You either get rid of the top echelon of the public service — all the deputy ministers in the central agencies go, and replace them with a new group that we feel confident have the competency and the values and make sure that this stuff won’t repeat over and over again, or we just wait for the next generation.”
Page, who served as Canada’s first parliamentary budget officer, and at various central agencies during a 27-year federal public service career, called Phoenix a “failure of values.”
While they might not always be emphasized, he said, qualities such as integrity, stewardship and excellence comprise a public service “code.”
Kevin Page
In his eyes, the negligence of executives charged with the Phoenix project — cancelling a pilot run, pressing forward without an adequate contingency plan — speaks to a deeper disregard for the values that should underscore public service.
“It’s not just a few project managers. It cuts right through all the work that’s done by senior managers and central agencies who are responsible to support decision-making and oversight for the executive,” Page said.
“There’s going to have to be new leadership in the public service.”
While the current cadre of senior executives could ostensibly have a “come-to-Jesus moment” in which a post-Phoenix reckoning leads to commitment to examine these underlying values, Page said he’s not hopeful.
Despite the AG’s self-professed “bleak” assessment of its workplace culture, Page said he works with many students who continue to aspire to public service.
In fact, he said, it’s possible that this recent bit of bad press could actually spur on those who believe they can be part of a culture and values shift in the bureaucracy.
“The time to buy is when the market is low,” Page quipped.
THE EXECUTIVES: It’s time to move forward
The head of the association that represents the more than 6,000 executives — typically directors and above — in the federal public service, sees things very differently.
“The executive community is as frustrated as any other group with this, and we’re being tarred with a brush with respect to Phoenix,” said Michel Vermette, CEO of the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada.
Michel Vermette, chief executive of APEX
The auditor general made some important recommendations, Vermette said, including the need for project oversight and independent review mechanisms for government-wide IT projects — to which Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat have agreed for all such projects, moving forward.
Ferguson’s comments about public service culture have also provided a “good reminder” to executives about the nature of their job — to provide advice to ministers, and implement the decisions those ministers ultimately make, according to Vermette.
But after two AG reports and an independent study by the Goss Gilroy Inc. consulting firm, Vermette said, it’s time to move forward, implement the audits’ recommendations, and work on fixing the pay problems Phoenix has given rise to.
He rejected calls from the Public Service Alliance of Canada for a public inquiry into the project’s failure, and a freeze on executive performance bonuses until employee pay issues are resolved.
“That’s damning an entire community of people who are working hard to make sure their staff get paid, but have little control over the system.”
THE PUBLIC SERVANTS: A public inquiry
Meanwhile, PSAC national president Chris Aylward says a national public inquiry into Phoenix is the public service’s only hope for changing the culture of “incomprehensible failures” that Ferguson cited.
PSAC, the largest union representing federal public-sector workers, will submit a formal request for an inquiry in the coming weeks.
Chris Aylward, PSAC national executive vice-president
“We need people to be compelled to come and testify under oath to say exactly what had happened,“ Aylward said, describing a culture that often discourages public servants from speaking out about perceived or possible flaws.
“I think the broader issue is that workers don’t want to come forward and say, ‘Hey there might be an issue here,’ because they’re afraid of reprisal.
“Then, a lot of times, the senior bureaucrats at the deputy level or the assistant deputy level, they don’t want to hear it because they’ve got the political pressure coming down from their ministers and from parliamentarians saying, ‘This has to get done,'” Aylward said.
THE EXPERT: Change the reward structure
The subjugation of the bureaucracy by political priorities was among Ferguson’s grim observations about what ails today’s public service.
It’s something Christopher Stoney, an associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, has observed.
“When it comes to culture, it seems to be very top-down as a hierarchy,” he said. “It cascades down from the political priorities and timing to the managerial, then it goes down to the public service themselves, who are then under pressure to try and meet these deadlines, which may be unrealistic.”
With Phoenix, Ferguson pointed out that executives were “more focused on meeting the project budget and timeline than on what the system needed to do,” as evidenced by decisions such as removing pay processing functions from Phoenix, compressing the project schedule and reducing the number of employees assigned to it, rather than asking for more time or money.
Stoney said this kind of perversion of priorities is enabled in part by the reward system in the public service.
“I would do away with performance bonuses, I think it gets too much tied into what we call goal displacement, so the people start trying to achieve things for the wrong reasons and the public interest gets lost because of self-interest and short-term thinking.”
In 2015-16 — the most recent period for which figures are posted by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat — more than $75 million was spent on performance pay for nearly 5,500 executives.
The value of the Phoenix experience, Stoney said, lies in the insight it has offered into the public service culture.
“There are some projects that are so important, so big, and so time-sensitive vis-à-vis elections,” that the cracks start to show, and what lies beneath is laid bare and talked about.
“Otherwise how the heck do we know what it is?”
TREASURY BOARD PRESIDENT: Tend to the plumbing
This underlying “plumbing of government,” said Scott Brison, president of the Treasury Board, is what his government has been working to improve since taking office in 2015.
“The two shiny objects to which people are attracted in government are usually policy and communications,” the longtime parliamentarian said. The Liberals, according to Brison, are delving deeper.
Treasury Board President Scott Brison
“We have taken and continue to take concrete actions to strengthen the culture of the public service, and to encourage a culture of experimentation and innovation,” evidenced, he said, by such policies as the “unmuzzling” of government scientists and new standards for government digital projects.
According to Brison, the public service needs to look less hierarchical, more agile and innovative in its approach to problem-solving and citizen engagement, and more enticing to millennials.
As for why the Phoenix failure was not averted under his government’s tenure — the auditor general held accountable both the previous Harper Conservative government under which Phoenix was first approved, and the current Liberal government for the decision to green light the pay system’s launch — Brison said culture change doesn’t happen overnight.
“We have made significant changes in the last couple of years, but we have a lot of work to do.”
“We feel actually the auditor general’s report helps reaffirm that we are heading in the right direction.”
查看原文...
Auditor general Michael Ferguson
However, after explaining the “why” of Phoenix — “an obedient public service that fears mistakes and risk,” unwilling or unable to hear and convey “hard truths” — in a message accompanying the audit of its building and implementation, Ferguson left it up to the federal government to puzzle out a remedy.
That solution depends on who you ask.
THE FORMER PBO: New leadership needed
Kevin Page, president and chief executive of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, proposed a stark fork in the bureaucracy’s road forward.
“You either get rid of the top echelon of the public service — all the deputy ministers in the central agencies go, and replace them with a new group that we feel confident have the competency and the values and make sure that this stuff won’t repeat over and over again, or we just wait for the next generation.”
Page, who served as Canada’s first parliamentary budget officer, and at various central agencies during a 27-year federal public service career, called Phoenix a “failure of values.”
While they might not always be emphasized, he said, qualities such as integrity, stewardship and excellence comprise a public service “code.”
Kevin Page
In his eyes, the negligence of executives charged with the Phoenix project — cancelling a pilot run, pressing forward without an adequate contingency plan — speaks to a deeper disregard for the values that should underscore public service.
“It’s not just a few project managers. It cuts right through all the work that’s done by senior managers and central agencies who are responsible to support decision-making and oversight for the executive,” Page said.
“There’s going to have to be new leadership in the public service.”
While the current cadre of senior executives could ostensibly have a “come-to-Jesus moment” in which a post-Phoenix reckoning leads to commitment to examine these underlying values, Page said he’s not hopeful.
Despite the AG’s self-professed “bleak” assessment of its workplace culture, Page said he works with many students who continue to aspire to public service.
In fact, he said, it’s possible that this recent bit of bad press could actually spur on those who believe they can be part of a culture and values shift in the bureaucracy.
“The time to buy is when the market is low,” Page quipped.
THE EXECUTIVES: It’s time to move forward
The head of the association that represents the more than 6,000 executives — typically directors and above — in the federal public service, sees things very differently.
“The executive community is as frustrated as any other group with this, and we’re being tarred with a brush with respect to Phoenix,” said Michel Vermette, CEO of the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada.
Michel Vermette, chief executive of APEX
The auditor general made some important recommendations, Vermette said, including the need for project oversight and independent review mechanisms for government-wide IT projects — to which Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat have agreed for all such projects, moving forward.
Ferguson’s comments about public service culture have also provided a “good reminder” to executives about the nature of their job — to provide advice to ministers, and implement the decisions those ministers ultimately make, according to Vermette.
But after two AG reports and an independent study by the Goss Gilroy Inc. consulting firm, Vermette said, it’s time to move forward, implement the audits’ recommendations, and work on fixing the pay problems Phoenix has given rise to.
He rejected calls from the Public Service Alliance of Canada for a public inquiry into the project’s failure, and a freeze on executive performance bonuses until employee pay issues are resolved.
“That’s damning an entire community of people who are working hard to make sure their staff get paid, but have little control over the system.”
THE PUBLIC SERVANTS: A public inquiry
Meanwhile, PSAC national president Chris Aylward says a national public inquiry into Phoenix is the public service’s only hope for changing the culture of “incomprehensible failures” that Ferguson cited.
PSAC, the largest union representing federal public-sector workers, will submit a formal request for an inquiry in the coming weeks.
Chris Aylward, PSAC national executive vice-president
“We need people to be compelled to come and testify under oath to say exactly what had happened,“ Aylward said, describing a culture that often discourages public servants from speaking out about perceived or possible flaws.
“I think the broader issue is that workers don’t want to come forward and say, ‘Hey there might be an issue here,’ because they’re afraid of reprisal.
“Then, a lot of times, the senior bureaucrats at the deputy level or the assistant deputy level, they don’t want to hear it because they’ve got the political pressure coming down from their ministers and from parliamentarians saying, ‘This has to get done,'” Aylward said.
THE EXPERT: Change the reward structure
The subjugation of the bureaucracy by political priorities was among Ferguson’s grim observations about what ails today’s public service.
It’s something Christopher Stoney, an associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, has observed.
“When it comes to culture, it seems to be very top-down as a hierarchy,” he said. “It cascades down from the political priorities and timing to the managerial, then it goes down to the public service themselves, who are then under pressure to try and meet these deadlines, which may be unrealistic.”
With Phoenix, Ferguson pointed out that executives were “more focused on meeting the project budget and timeline than on what the system needed to do,” as evidenced by decisions such as removing pay processing functions from Phoenix, compressing the project schedule and reducing the number of employees assigned to it, rather than asking for more time or money.
Stoney said this kind of perversion of priorities is enabled in part by the reward system in the public service.
“I would do away with performance bonuses, I think it gets too much tied into what we call goal displacement, so the people start trying to achieve things for the wrong reasons and the public interest gets lost because of self-interest and short-term thinking.”
In 2015-16 — the most recent period for which figures are posted by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat — more than $75 million was spent on performance pay for nearly 5,500 executives.
The value of the Phoenix experience, Stoney said, lies in the insight it has offered into the public service culture.
“There are some projects that are so important, so big, and so time-sensitive vis-à-vis elections,” that the cracks start to show, and what lies beneath is laid bare and talked about.
“Otherwise how the heck do we know what it is?”
TREASURY BOARD PRESIDENT: Tend to the plumbing
This underlying “plumbing of government,” said Scott Brison, president of the Treasury Board, is what his government has been working to improve since taking office in 2015.
“The two shiny objects to which people are attracted in government are usually policy and communications,” the longtime parliamentarian said. The Liberals, according to Brison, are delving deeper.
Treasury Board President Scott Brison
“We have taken and continue to take concrete actions to strengthen the culture of the public service, and to encourage a culture of experimentation and innovation,” evidenced, he said, by such policies as the “unmuzzling” of government scientists and new standards for government digital projects.
According to Brison, the public service needs to look less hierarchical, more agile and innovative in its approach to problem-solving and citizen engagement, and more enticing to millennials.
As for why the Phoenix failure was not averted under his government’s tenure — the auditor general held accountable both the previous Harper Conservative government under which Phoenix was first approved, and the current Liberal government for the decision to green light the pay system’s launch — Brison said culture change doesn’t happen overnight.
“We have made significant changes in the last couple of years, but we have a lot of work to do.”
“We feel actually the auditor general’s report helps reaffirm that we are heading in the right direction.”
查看原文...
