To maximize the contribution of government programs in achieving their departmental missions, there is a need to enhance the effectiveness and expediency of decision making throughout the public sector at both departmental and branch levels.

Governance is the process whereby organizations make important decisions and render account. The goal of an effective governance regime is to ensure that all initiatives are managed from an organization-wide perspective and that they contribute to the organization’s strategic business goals.¹ A good governance regime results in well-informed and strategic decisions and leads to:

• Eliminating duplication of effort and overlap of initiatives across the organization in developing solutions that are needed by all core business lines. The effective implementation of this process can save 10-20 percent (either through direct cost savings or cost avoidance) in both the capital and operational budgets for large departments.
• Improving transparency and streamlined decision making by ensuring governance is visible, understood, accepted and supported throughout the department
• Improving quality and timely service to clients.
• An appropriate process for discussing and resolving issues related to specific initiatives both at headquarters and in the regions.
• Identifying business opportunities, their benefits, risks and impacts on the organization.
• A structure and process for supporting the implementation and updating of the department business plan.
• Streamlining the process of defining requirements, obtaining approvals and developing/implementing effective solutions for initiatives and projects. In short, it can reduce the timeline associated with making decisions and implementing important department wide initiatives.
• Ensuring that the change process associated with the implementation of new initiatives is well managed, so that change occurs smoothly with minimal disruption to sector operations.
• Establishing standards, policies and guidelines for program branches that conform to those of the department.

Too often, current practices in the federal government limit governance to a definition of structure, i.e., committees and membership. There is little consideration or attention given to what the structure is designed to achieve, the foundation upon which decisions will be rendered, the manner in which decisions will be communicated and evaluation of the net results of decisions taken.

The issues interfering with effective governance

Principles

• Many departments and branches have no stated or formal governance principles that establish a code of conduct for making decisions at either the departmental or branch levels. As a result, there can be a competitive stance among the players, often making decisions that serve specific interests rather than those of the department as a whole. Cooperative behaviour may be seen as a loss of power instead of a means to empower the department as a whole. Synergy in terms of cooperation, decision making, and the sharing of resources tends to be mandated at the deputy level rather than viewed as a normal business practice. This perspective is a reflection of a tradition of independent strategic business units rather than a strong synergistic whole.
• Governance principles help to establish the framework and the doctrine that will govern behaviour in the exercise of the governance process. Stated and agreed to governance principles outline the norms through which all stakeholders make crucial governance decisions and ensure that the governance process is accountable, transparent and based on declared organizational values.

¹  IM/IT Governance Framework, B Shane, P Lafferty, T Beasley: Optimum, Journal of Public Sector Management vol 23 No: 2/3, 1999, or www.bpcgallery.com.