Statement outlining results, risks and significant changes in operations, personnel and program
Introduction
This quarterly financial report has been prepared by management as required by section 65.1 of the
Financial Administration Act and in the form and manner prescribed by the Treasury Board. The report should be read in conjunction with the Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates A as well as Canada's Economic Action Plan 2012 (Budget 2012). The report has not been subject to an external audit or review.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) is an independent administrative tribunal that was created on January 1, 1989, by an amendment to the
Immigration Act. In 2002, the
Immigration Act was replaced by the
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), which was amended by the
Balanced Refugee Reform Act (BRRA) in 2010 and by the
Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act (PCISA) in 2012.
The IRB has a single strategic outcome which is to resolve immigration and refugee cases before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.
The
IRB has five programs: Refugee Protection, Refugee Appeals, Immigration ppeals, Admissibility Hearings and Detention Reviews, Refugee Appeals and Internal Services. The Internal Services program supports the four other program activities.
Basis of Presentation
This quarterly report has been prepared by management using an expenditure basis of accounting. The accompanying Statement of Authorities includes the
IRB's spending authorities granted by Parliament and those used by the
IRB in a manner consistent with the Main Estimates for the 2013-14 fiscal year. This quarterly report has been prepared using a special purpose financial reporting framework designed to meet financial information needs with respect to the use of spending authorities.
The authority of Parliament is required before monies can be spent by the Government.
Approvals are given in the form of annually approved limits through appropriation acts or through legislation in the form of statutory spending authority for specific purposes.
As part of the Parliamentary business of supply, the Main Estimates must be tabled in Parliament on or before March 1 preceding the new fiscal year. Budget 2012 was tabled in Parliament on March 29, after the tabling of the Main Estimates on February 28, 2012. As a result, the measures announced in Budget 2012 could not be reflected in the 2012-2013 Main Estimates.
In fiscal year 2012-2013, frozen allotments were established by Treasury Board authority in departmental votes to prohibit the spending of funds already identified as savings measures in Budget 2012. In 2013-2014, the changes to departmental authorities were reflected in the 2013-2014 Main Estimates tabled in Parliament.
The
IRB uses the full accrual method of accounting to prepare and present its annual departmental financial statements that are part of the departmental performance reporting process. However, the spending authorities voted by Parliament remain on an expenditure basis.
Highlights of fiscal quarter and fiscal year to date (YTD) results
IRB's 2012-2013 authorities represent the total Main Estimates and the Supplementary Estimates (A), whereas 2013-2014 includes the amounts in the Main Estimates.
IRB did not request authorities through Supplementary Estimates (A) in 2013-2014
Significant Changes to Authorities
As at December 31, 2013, the total authorities available for use were $129.4 million compared to $461.2 million for the same quarter of the prior year, representing a decrease of $16.8 million or 11.5% as reflected in the Statement of Authorities and as shown in the graph below.
The net decrease of $16.8 million is due to the following:
- A decrease of $18.4M in temporary funding to support the reform of Canada's refugee system;
- A decrease of $6.3M related to savings identified as part of Budget 2012 measures;
- A decrease of $0.3M for the permanent transfer to Public Works and Government Services Canada as part of the Consolidation of Pay Services Project;
- A decrease of $0.1M for the permanent transfer to the Public Service Commission for the Public Service Resourcing System;
- A decrease of $5.8M due to later approval of the carry-forward funding;
- An increase of $1.7M in temporary funding to address challenges in the management of security inadmissibility cases, protect classified information in immigration proceedings, and obtain assurances against torture in exceptional removal cases;
- An increase of $0.8M in temporary funding to support sharing of immigrant information with the United States; and
- An increase of $0.2M due to adjustments to the Employee Benefit Program rates.
- An increase of $0.5M due to the compensation for collective agreements;
- A net increase of $0.3M of operating budget carry-forward compared to the amount carried-forward in the previous year;
- A net decrease of $1.2M as recovery for the reimbursement of paylist expenditures occurred after the quarter ended;
- No funds were reprofiled to future years in 2013-2014 whereas $6.0M in were reprofiled in 2012-2013.
Significant Changes to Expenditures
The
IRB spent 22.5% of its authorities in the third quarter of 2013-2014. Compared to the previous year quarter, total expenditures have decreased by $4.1M from $33.2 million to $29.1 million. This represents a decrease of 12.3%.
[Alternate format]
The image illustrates a graph.
- The Y axis (vertical) represents amounts in million of dollars in increments of 20 ranging from 0 to 160.
- The X axis (horizontal) represents two fiscal years:
Each fiscal year consist of two columns:
- the first column indicates the total authorities
- the second column represents the expenditures
For fiscal year 2013-2014, the total authorities are 129.4 millions and expenditures are 29.1 millions.
For fiscal year 2012-2013, the the total authorities are 146.2 millions and the expenditures are 33.2 millions.
Risks and Uncertainties
The
IRB is funded through annual appropriations. As a result, its operations are affected by any changes in funding approved by Parliament. In addition, the
IRB's operations are affected by changes to legislation, the pace of Governor in Council appointments and reappointments of
IRB members and the intake of new immigration and refugee cases.
Budget 2010 announced that the operating budgets of departments and agencies would be frozen at their 2010-2011 levels for fiscal years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Consequently, increases in expenditures related to personnel costs and other operating expenditures have to be managed within the allocated budget. In addition, a Strategic Review was conducted resulting in a net budget reduction of $5.7 million over fiscal years 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 to the Refugee Protection, Admissibility Hearings and Detention Reviews and Internal Services programs. The impact on organizational activities has been managed through the following actions and mitigation strategies:
- Increases in personnel costs due to collective agreements have been absorbed through attrition due to retirements and departures for other reasons; and
- Increases in other operating costs have been managed through the reallocation of budgets from lower to higher priorities.
Significant changes related to operations, personnel and program
In November 2013, the Executive Director of the Board retired. In January 2014
Mr. Benjamin Dolin assumed the functions of acting Deputy Chairperson of the Immigration Appeal Division.
In July 2013, Douglas Michael Lloyd was named Chief Financial Officer of the Board.
Budget 2012 Implementation
This section provides an overview of the savings measures announced in Budget 2012 that will be implemented in order to refocus government and programs; make it easier for Canadians and business to deal with their government; and, modernize and reduce the back office.
Under Budget 2012, the
IRB will achieve savings of $13.1 million by fiscal year 2014-2015 through efficiency measures and program reductions that align resources to the
IRB's core mandate, scaling back activities where the need is reduced; transforming internal operations; and by consolidating and streamlining its activities. With these changes the
IRB will support management excellence and accountability in government.
In the first year of implementation, the
IRB achieved savings of approximately $3.3 million. Savings increased to $6.3 million in 2013-2014 and will result in ongoing savings of $13.1 million by 2014-2015.
For information on
IRB’s savings included in Budget 2012 by Program Alignment Architecture, please consult the
Supplementary Data on Budget 2012 Implementation.
The savings are derived from the closure of the Ottawa registry office; the elimination of a planned measure to provide transcripts of proceedings of the new Refugee Protection Division (RPD) where the decision is appealed to the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD); the elimination of the information-gathering interview at the new
RPD; and the expected reduction in the volume of appeals to the
RAD resulting from legislation adopted by Parliament.
Approval by Senior Officials
Approved by:
Ken Sandhu,
Interim Chairperson
Douglas Michael Lloyd,
Chief Financial Officer
Ottawa, Canada
February 21, 2014
Statement of Authorities
(unaudited)
Fiscal year 2013-2014
(in thousands of dollars)
| Total available for use for the year ending March 31, 2014Note 1 | Used during the quarter ended December 31, 2013 | Year to date used at quarter-end |
|---|
| Vote 10 – Net Operating expenditures | 114,954 | 25,450 | 77,654 |
| Statutory authority – Contributions to employee benefit plans | 14,493 | 3,623 | 9,661 |
| Statutory authority – Spending of proceeds from the disposal of surplus Crown assets | 1 | - | 1 |
|
Total authorities |
129,448 |
29,073 |
87,316 |
Fiscal year 2012-2013
(in thousands of dollars)
| Total available for use for the year ending March 31, 2013Note 1 Note 2 | Used during the quarter ended December 31, 2012 | Year to date used at quarter-end |
|---|
| Vote 10 – Net Operating expenditures | 129,685 | 29,044 | 79,839 |
| Statutory authority – Contributions to employee benefit plans | 16,467 | 4,117 | 12,350 |
| Statutory authority – Spending of proceeds from the disposal of surplus Crown assets | 2 | 1 | 2 |
|
Total authorities |
146,154 |
33,162 |
92,191 |
Departmental budgetary expenditures by Standard Object
(unaudited)
Fiscal year 2013-2014
(in thousands of dollars)
| Expenditures | Planned expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2014 | Expended during the quarter ended December 31, 2013 | Year to date used at quarter-end |
|---|
| Personnel | 98,296 | 23,957 | 73,275 |
| Transportation and communications | 2,915 | 398 | 1,322 |
| Information | 275 | 21 | 101 |
| Professional and special services | 23,238 | 4,283 | 11,346 |
| Rentals | 670 | 151 | 496 |
| Repair and maintenance | 1,995 | 70 | 118 |
| Utilities, materials and supplies | 535 | 155 | 322 |
| Acquisition of machinery and equipment | 1,421 | 26 | 306 |
| Other subsidies and payments | 103 | 12 | 30 |
|
Total net budgetary expenditures |
129,448 |
29,073 |
87,316 |
Fiscal year 2012-2013
(in thousands of dollars)
| Expenditures | Planned expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2013Note 1 Note 2 | Expended during the quarter ended December 31, 2012 | Year to date used at quarter-end |
|---|
| Personnel | 112,532 | 25,025 | 73,998 |
| Transportation and communications | 3,730 | 830 | 1,867 |
| Information | 75 | 242 | 375 |
| Professional and special services | 20,515 | 5,057 | 12,627 |
| Rentals | 1,354 | 125 | 915 |
| Repair and maintenance | 4,890 | 903 | 1,012 |
| Utilities, materials and supplies | 925 | 163 | 348 |
| Acquisition of machinery and equipment | 1,877 | 797 | 1,003 |
| Other subsidies and payments | 256 | 20 | 46 |
|
Total net budgetary expenditures |
146,154 |
33,162 |
92,191 |