The federal auditor general has given the government high marks for the way it created the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
In a report to Parliament last week, Denis Desautels recommended the government learn from the successful lessons of the CFIA when it is creating other new agencies in the future.
In the report, the auditor general praised the agency for how it has been able to work within the system to consolidate programs and staff from three departments and work with provincial governments during its first year.
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“The agency has worked to meet the expectation that it would be more innovative, flexible and efficient in the delivery of services,” said the report from Desautels. “The agency has had to do all this under pressures of time and, more significantly, while ensuring the continuity of food safety and quarantine programs.”
Creation process
The audit was not intended to assess CFIA performance as a food inspector. It was an audit of how well the bureaucracy worked to create a new form of government agency.
The auditor general also gave the government high marks for creating the agency out of the threads of other food inspection services, which were scattered through the departments of agriculture, fisheries and health.
He said a key was that all three departments co-operated and government central agencies gave strong direction.
“Department heads might be expected to protect their own organization and give lukewarm support to a new agency that would reduce their own resources and programs,” he wrote. “This was not the case with the CFIA.”
However, Desautels warned the agency cannot rest on its laurels. “Many demands lie ahead.”
As it evolves, it has been given more flexibility than most government agencies have and it is expected to use that flexibility to find new and better ways to deliver services.
“The concern is that the longer the agency takes to create systems and practices that reflect its powers, the more it risks falling back into traditional ways of doing business,” said the report.
It also noted there will be more staff uncertainty after July 1, 1999 when the two-year job guarantee given employees expires.
