Financial Management Policy Review

The Treasury Board Policy Renewal Initiative was introduced in January 2005 as one of the Secretary’s key management initiatives. This initiative supports enhanced accountability, excellence in management of the public service and the Federal Accountability Action Plan commitment to reduce the number of policies instruments by at least 50%.

The goal of this initiative is to clarify through a renewed policy suite, the management responsibilities and accountabilities of Ministers and Deputy Heads, distinguishing between their duties and those of functional experts in the financial community and to create an integrated, streamlined and consolidated policy infrastructure.

The Financial Management and Analysis Sector (FMAS) has been reviewing and analyzing the current 160+ financial management policy instruments with the intention to create a more integrated, streamlined and consolidated financial policy infrastructure. Through consultations with all federal departments and small agencies, the finalized product will be a phased-in and invaluable consolidated community effort.

As a part of this, the Office of the Comptroller General has been working to strengthen and streamline Treasury Board financial management policies. The following proposed new suite of policy instruments is being developed:

• Policy Framework for Financial Management
• Policy on Financial Management Governance (Effective April 2009 with minor adjustments made since)
• Policy on Internal Control
  • Questions and Answers
• Policy on Financial Resource Management, Information and Reporting
• Policy on Stewardship of Financial Management Systems

A number of directives were developed to replace the previous mix of over one hundred financial management policies, guides, guidelines, circulars, bulletins, directives etc. The full list of new directives and guidelines can be found on the Policy Suite Renewal Initiative webpage.