Canada. Treasury Board Secretariat. Administrative Policy Branch : The Administrative Policy Branch was created in 1970 to administer the regulatory component of the former Management Improvement Branch in relation to the management and internal control of material, financial and non-financial resources including real property, materiel, and information. It was responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of policies, regulations and guidelines on wide range of administrative matters. While its mandate evolved, contracted and expanded over the years, the Administrative Policy Branch remained the third major foci of Treasury Board activity for a quarter of a century (the others being financial management as defined by expenditure management/program evaluation function and human resources management function). The full mandate of the Branch included employee services, common services, contracting and procurement, major crown projects, communications, information management, information policy, the administration of the access to information and privacy procedures, information systems and technology, management services, materiel management, security, risk management, emergency planning, relocation, travel, accommodation, incentive awards, the Federal Identify program, real property, regulatory reform and review of regulatory initiatives, deregulation, and voluntary international standards coordination. Incentive awards, real property, regulatory reform and deregulation periodically passed out of the jurisdiction of either the branch or the TBS itself at various times through 1995.
The traditional assumptions underlying the branch structure were undercut by several factors 1) a radically new approach to comptrollership and values based governance involving enhanced delegation to deputy heads and greater accountability for planned and measurable results that transcended traditional distinctions among expenditure management, comptrollership and traditional financial control functions; 2) the revamping of public sector accounting procedures to conform with accrual principles; 3) the reconstruction of the Secretariat to operate as a true management board ensuring the overall integrity of comptrollership principles in a regime of radical delegation of authority and 4) the new priority to provide comprehensive, enhanced and cost-effective services to the public using digital technology. In this fundamental shift in assumptions about public sector governance, the main components of the Administrative Policy Branch were redistributed in a radical reorganization of the TBS circa 1995. This extended reorganization that stretched over the years 1993-1996 saw the reincorporation of the Comptroller General function into a consolidated Treasury Board Secretariat and the components and/or programs of the Administrative Policy Branch integrated into re-engineered programs of the Chief Information Officer (Branch), the various expenditure management portfolio sectors, the Comptrollership Branch and what became known as the Service and Innovation Sector. While the Administrative Policy Branch amounts to a defunct organizational unit, its mandate and activities continue to be an essential part of modern governance administered through the broader evolving mandate of the Treasury Board Secretariat.
