Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 06

24 / Canadian Government Executive // December 2018/January 2019 DIGITAL GOVERNMENT Shared Services Canada Shared Services Canada (SSC) was estab- lished by the Shared Services Act (SSA) “to standardize and consolidate ... certain ad- ministrative services ... and ... enable those services to be provided more effectively and will support the efficient use of public money.” Innovation and security were im- plicit in the mandate, and the intent for SSC to manage its services as an enterprise is key (and somewhat unique). SSC has begun to successfully answer the question, “Would you prefer to have a few billion dollars hid- den among departments or well managed in one fit-for-purpose organization?” Part of the reason for the Act and SSC was to con- solidate risk into a fit-for-purpose organiza- tion that would have the expertise to assess and manage risk, thereby relieving the bur- den from departments with less ability to consistently assess risk. Also, the intention was to expand beyond IT into other areas – e.g., HR transactions – over time. Providing IT services is not core to Gov- ernment departments – IT is core to SSC. SSC is now a multi-billion-dollar systems integrator and managed services pro- vider serving well over a hundred client organizations. SSC has performed well by making significant savings for the Govern- ment while reducing incidents, increasing Government capabilities and security, with good and improving customer satisfaction and steadily increasing demand for its ser- vices. While SSC continues to mature in meeting expectations akin to world class providers, many of the remaining challeng- es are outside SSC’s control. Governance Risk Treasury Board (TB) and Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) are obviously the gov- ernance implied in the analogy above. I believe the majority of people in these organizations work very hard with the best of intentions for the greater good – period. Nevertheless, this governance in- hibits performance across the enterprise. Also, requesting organizations often wear the blame when progress is delayed due to TB/TBS processes and practices: 6+ month lead times through limited win- dows of the year to gain TB approval for routine transactions are not conducive to the success of a 24/7 service provider. This is one of the reasons projects take months and years. In the case of SSC, this position was val- idated by the Gartner Review Expert Pan- el specifically addressing this situation when members told the Secretary of TBS, “You need to take the shackles off.” While these governance issues are very real, there is a reluctance to recognize the is- sues by affected organizations. With some friendly humor, I refer to this resistance as a bit of Stockholm Syndrome – people are afraid to admit their captors are the problem and will protect the status quo despite the negative impacts. Another example of this hindering governance is in project management via TBS’s Organizational Project Man- agement Capacity Assessment (OPMCA). This process attempts to assess an orga- nization’s capacity to manage projects, however OPMCA is not certified by any credible industry body – e.g., Project Man- agement Institute (PMI) – nor does TBS have adequate experience to assess SSC given SSC’s scope and scale of work. This has led to unnecessary delays and im- peding SSC’s performance. Even though SSC successfully scored against OPMCA’s criteria and demonstrates continuing improvement, Treasury Board reduced SSC’s project authority, further imped- ing SSC’s progress and causing a backlog of work hindering many Government of Canada departments and their services to Canadians. During my time at SSC, I recall being told that even if TBS wanted to recom- mend returning SSC to its previous OPM- CA level, the Treasury Board would never approve it, which begs the question, “Why?” I also recall colleagues passing on comments from senior TBS officials saying that SSC was unnecessary and should be ended. When looking at how funding and authorities for SSC are rou- tinely withheld, one wonders what other agenda is at play. What is important to un- derstand is these actions negatively affect the breadth of the Government which SSC supports. Divided House of Service Providers: A Missed Opportunity? Delays, Confusion and Gaps While SSC is the only organization charged with providing IT services for the Government as an enterprise, Pub-