Cost Estimating in the Government of
Canada
Internal Cost Estimating Analysts Association
Bill Matthews
Comptroller General for Canada
1
Context
• Office of the Comptroller General and establishment of the Costing
Centre of Expertise
• Clear government commitments in President’s mandate letter to
transparency and evidence based decision-making
• Commitments regarding due diligence, costing analysis and the
use and disclosure of evidence and data used in decision
making
• A challenging fiscal environment will enhance the importance of
prudent resource allocation strategies
• CFO attestation is a key element in advising decision-makers
• A renewed emphasis on achieving and reporting on results and
outcomes
• Measuring performance and the metrics agenda
• Expectation that cost estimates will play a pivotal role in support of
decision making
2
Costing Centre of Expertise
• The Costing Center of Expertise was established in Feb 2014 with
a mandate that includes
• Conducting enhanced due diligence of Cabinet documents
subject to thresholds and risk
• Supporting departments in building cost estimating capacity
• To date, 343 reviews of Cabinet document have occurred
comprising approximately $475B in spending which includes
• Procurements, including military acquisitions and IM/IT projects
• New programs or renewal of existing programs
• Of Cabinet documents reviewed, 75% are reviewed in less than
five (5) days
3
Office of Comptroller General Initiatives
• Improved oversight and reporting to Parliament
• Disclose the cost of legislation and programs to Parliament
• Better alignment between Budget and Estimates
• Better Costing
• Increase the skill-sets of cost estimators across government
• Introduce common government-wide practices
• Calibrate cost estimating requirements to project complexity
• Strengthening the management of user fees
• Strengthen the management regime around user fees
• Modernized Comptrollership
• Balance risk mitigation and resilience
• Use metrics to inform resource allocation strategies
4
Minister’s Expect that…
• Options to address capability deficiencies or broader
government priorities are thoroughly assessed and defensible
with evidence and data appropriate to the decision point
• Appropriate levels of analysis and due diligence by departments
and central agencies leading to high quality advice to support
Ministers
• Thorough risk assessments and practical mitigation strategies
are available to Ministers during their deliberations
• Heightened consideration is given to measuring performance,
tracking progress and reporting on outcomes
5
Challenges
• Costing capacity within departments
• Is it evolving quickly enough?
• How do we balance the expanding interest on costing with
differing departmental requirements?
• Data access and limitations
• Do we have the right data to support evidence-based decision
making?
• Have we developed strategies to acquire and exploit our data
on a more routine basis?
• Performance measurement and monitoring progress
• Are processes in place to monitor costs and improve cost
estimates based on performance?
• How do we engage with a broader set of stakeholders?
6
Summary
• Expectations around strengthened cost estimates started to
elevate in 2013 and continue to grow
• We expect this focus will further increase given international
attention on evidenced-based decision-making
• Horizontal engagement and collaboration amongst
departments will be to moving this agenda forward
7