October 3, 2017
Province Releases KPMG Report on Fiscal Performance.
The province is releasing KPMG’s Fiscal Performance Review, Finance Minister Cameron Friesen announced today.
“After receiving a strong mandate from Manitobans after 17 years of mismanagement, reckless overspending and ever-increasing debt, the government commissioned a value-for-money review to help us restore fiscal discipline and determine whether the citizens of Manitoba were receiving value for their taxpayer dollars. As promised, we are releasing the findings of those reports with Manitobans today,” said Friesen.
KPMG won a tendered contract to conduct a fiscal performance review across core government excluding health. It produced its report in two phases – the first was a scoping document identifying areas of potential cost savings and the second was a more detailed analysis of six specific areas for further consideration.
The minister said the Fiscal Performance Review is being released in its entirety, with only two very limited exceptions. The first exception is information which could compromise the personal information of government employees.
“When we seek advice from civil servants, it is done with a strict assurance of confidence to ensure frank and honest assessment of government operations. To release that advice would undermine the integrity of our budgetary process,” said Friesen.
The second exception relates to matters reported by KPMG in respect of what is known as ‘pre-estimates’. Every year as part of the budgeting process, civil servants are asked to submit budget proposals for consideration by cabinet. To protect the integrity of this process and an environment of trust and confidence, specific proposals have been removed. Other than these two exceptions, there were no redactions, Friesen noted.
One of the critical recommendations in the report was in respect to shaping the workforce. With approximately 8 per cent of the civil service turning over every year, KPMG recommended the use of attrition as an effective way to rethink government; to retool service delivery models to ensure they are effective and efficient.
“Our government believes that over the next three years, it is realistic to leverage a number of initiatives including operational efficiencies, alternative service delivery and attrition to decrease the size of the civil service by eight per cent in a manner that does not impact the services and outcomes Manitobans expect and rely on,” said Friesen. “We believe this approach is reasonable and responsible, and is consistent with experiences many are undergoing in the private sector.”
The minister noted the Fiscal Performance Review report by KPMG contains a series of recommendations or possible decisions for government to consider. As such, some recommendations were adopted, some are in the process of being explored, and other recommendations were viewed by government as not being the right solutions for Manitobans, Friesen added.
“The KPMG report on fiscal performance allowed our government to quickly analyze a range of options and opportunities available to achieve better value for money, and has helped advance our transformation of government,” said Friesen. “Ultimately, we are accountable to the citizens of Manitoba and will only act on recommendations that are in the best interest of Manitobans.”
Following today’s release of the Fiscal Performance Review, the province is also committed to releasing the Health-Care Sustainability and Innovation Review (HSIR), also commissioned to KMPG through a competitive RFP process. As it was tendered and conducted after the Fiscal Performance Review, that report will be ready to be released by May 31, 2018.
Phase one and phase two of the Fiscal Performance Review can be viewed at: www.gov.mb.ca/government/proactive_disclosure.html#department.
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