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Completely unjustifiable': Feds paid out $190 million in bonuses to public servants

daftandbarmy

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The FUJIMA bonus package, I suppose you could call it ;)


Completely unjustifiable': Feds paid out $190 million in bonuses to public servants​

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), which oversees Canada’s passport program, paid out $11 million in bonuses



The documents show that no less than 89 per cent of public sector executives (7,752) were paid a bonus last fiscal year, based on their performances in 2020-2021. That’s just over 500 more than the previous year, according to government data published last spring by National Post.

Public service executives have access to performance or at-risk bonuses because they are not allowed to claim overtime pay.

Another 8,317 “non-executive” public servants — or three per cent of their total ranks — also received a bonus last fiscal year. That’s also roughly a 500 jump from the previous year.

The documents do not provide a breakdown of how much of the $190 million, which includes both performance bonuses as well as “at-risk pay,” went to executives specifically,

According to the government’s website, executives must meet or exceed commitments contained in their respective annual performance agreements as well as show six “leadership competencies” to be eligible for a bonus.

“Performance pay is an important component of executives’ total compensation package but must be re-earned each year,” Treasury Board Secretariat spokesperson Barb Couperus said in a statement.

“The at-risk nature of performance pay helps to hold executives accountable for delivery of results and excellence in leadership. Executives who do not meet performance expectations or cannot be assessed are not eligible for performance pay.”

In an interview, McCauley called the bonuses “frustrating” and “disappointing” at a time when Canadians are reeling financially from COVID-19 lockdowns and decades-high inflation rates, among other rising costs.

He also noted that in 2020-2021 (which last year’s performance bonus payments were based on), government departments and agencies only met 45.7 per cent of their combined 2,722 departmental performance results, according to a federal database.

“It’s garbage,” McCauley said. “I think it’s completely unjustifiable considering targets met.”

“When you’re missing targets over 50 per cent of the time, taxpayers should not be rewarding failure,” he added. “It makes it more egregious when you read that one of every six restaurants are expected to shut down and people’s livelihoods were taken away.”





'Completely unjustifiable': Feds paid out $190 million in bonuses to public servants
 
Where are the Trump hounds? Shouldn't they be here bitching about the incompetent liberal government? Or is what is happening elsewhere, that is more important, than our own country? It's a sad commentary when Canadians care more about the musings of a foreign ex president than the do about their own incompetent leaders.

These are the forums that should be the most interest to us. Not foreign affairs ones.

But then we wouldn't be real Canadians would we? Letting our country turn into a rubbish tip while lecturing the world about democracy from our socialist leadership.
 
Where are the Trump hounds? Shouldn't they be here bitching about the incompetent liberal government? Or is what is happening elsewhere, that is more important, than our own country? It's a sad commentary when Canadians care more about the musings of a foreign ex president than the do about their own incompetent leaders.

These are the forums that should be the most interest to us. Not foreign affairs ones.

But then we wouldn't be real Canadians would we? Letting our country turn into a rubbish tip while lecturing the world about democracy from our socialist leadership.
Because this story has nothing to do with Trump?

Because this thread is barely 30mins old?

Because people can post where and on whatever they want?

Because likely Trudeau and the Libs have nothing to really do with executive bonuses and how they are managed?

To be honest though they need to really fix that system. The Phoenix turds got their bonuses back when they effed that up (That was under Harper btw and no I don’t blame him either).

Better benchmarks need to be laid out,
 
It's my belief that the bonus system contributed greatly to Phoenix fiasco. The EX's focus on getting that bonus, regardless of the cost or if the target is good idea. I suspect the bonus for the others were likely deserved and some were likely to keep specialists from leaving.
 
Executives who do not meet performance expectations or cannot be assessed are not eligible for performance pay.”
How about taking a page from the private sector and executives who don't meet performance expectations get turfed.
It's my belief that the bonus system contributed greatly to Phoenix fiasco. The EX's focus on getting that bonus, regardless of the cost or if the target is good idea. I suspect the bonus for the others were likely deserved and some were likely to keep specialists from leaving.
I was part of a multi-million dollar project team at the provincial level on a new system that was a dog, but the executive lead pushed it through because it was on his performance management plan. When we tried to push our data, we were told we 'didn't get the big picture'. Uh-huh. I kept a copy of our final report until I retired in the faint, and ultimately fruitless, hope that my team would be vindicated.
 
How about taking a page from the private sector and executives who don't meet performance expectations get turfed.

I was part of a multi-million dollar project team at the provincial level on a new system that was a dog, but the executive lead pushed it through because it was on his performance management plan. When we tried to push our data, we were told we 'didn't get the big picture'. Uh-huh. I kept a copy of our final report until I retired in the faint, and ultimately fruitless, hope that my team would be vindicated.

Just sayin' ;)

bcauditor@bcauditor.com

 
Rogers enters the chat... Canada's private sector is rife with family intrigue, self-dealing, nepotism, gem smuggling... and that's just Rogers.
Ya, fair point. The private sector is far from perfect, but it seems they have fewer 'place holders' in high office. At least with same company - they share them around by giving them money to leave plus a glowing recommendation.
 
I'm not a big fan of the GoC PM framework generally. We already need more performance metrics like we need holes in the head, but it's genuinely really difficult to find somethng that is actually meaningful and within their control. So either it's a rubber stamped check in the box, or they are completely at the whim of things outside their control. There is also no check and balances so they do things like make sure it's on time while actually working. It's also rife to abuse by their CoC who can play favourites with it being awarded or not with no real consequence.

Really should only apply to a top few, as the LOE to do it properly probably costs more than the actual bonuses.
 
I'm not a big fan of the GoC PM framework generally. We already need more performance metrics like we need holes in the head, but it's genuinely really difficult to find somethng that is actually meaningful and within their control. So either it's a rubber stamped check in the box, or they are completely at the whim of things outside their control. There is also no check and balances so they do things like make sure it's on time while actually working. It's also rife to abuse by their CoC who can play favourites with it being awarded or not with no real consequence.

Really should only apply to a top few, as the LOE to do it properly probably costs more than the actual bonuses.

And it seems that pay incentives for the public service, a practise copied from the private sector, don't really work either:

PERFORMANCE-RELATED PAY FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

Performance pay is an appealing idea, but the experiences reviewed in this study indicate that its implementation is complex and difficult. Previous OECD studies on the impact of performance pay at the managerial level concluded that many of the schemes had failed to satisfy key motivational requirements for effective performance pay, because of design and implementation problems, but also because performance assessment is inherently difficult in the public sector (OECD, 1993; OECD, 1997).

Performance measurement in the public sector requires a large element of managerial judgement. The notion of performance itself is complex, owing to the difficulty of finding suitable quantitative indicators and because performance objectives often change with government policy. Many studies have concluded that the impact of PRP on performance is limited, and can in fact be negative.

Evidence cited in this book indicates that the impact of PRP on motivation is ambivalent: while it appears to motivate a minority of staff, it seems that a large majority often do not see PRP as an incentive. While base pay as it relates to the wider “market” is important, supplementary pay increases for performance are a second-rank incentive for most government employees, especially those in nonmanagerial roles. Job content and career development prospects have been found to be the strongest incentives for public employees. PRP is unlikely to motivate a substantial majority of staff, irrespective of the design.

 
My experience: some functions don't mix well with P4P schemes; there is a lot of reluctance higher up to admit this.
 
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