After receiving a recommendation from the Internal Audit and Accountability Branch of IRCC, the agency is creating guiding principles for managing the immigration pilot program. Risk management, governance, and control processes are assessed by the internal audit of IRCC.
It was great satisfaction that the accountability branch conducted an internal audit of the Immigration Pilot Program from June 2021 to August 2021. Pilot immigration programs are temporary and can exist for up to five years. The IRCC decides whether or not to make a permanent decision.
The Start-up Visa Program, the Caregiver Pilots Program, and the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program. The three pilot projects that were chosen for in-depth analysis. On March 29 the findings were made public, and on August 8 they were posted online.
A set of guiding principles should be established by IRCC to ensure better design, execution, and evaluation of pilot programs. Typically, pilot programs require a greater commitment of financial and human resources during the planning phase. But several pilot programs have been constructed without any additional funding being set aside to meet demand. A few examples of unfunded pilot programs are the Caregivers Pilot Program and the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program, among others. This resulted in increasing the workload of IRCC employees by relying on the current capacity of the department.
A comprehensive analysis of the impact of pilot programs on the IRCC’s ability to deliver its core programs or the development of effective mitigation measures to minimize their impact was also not conducted. Employees were unable to effectively manage their workload due to inconsistent training for pilot-specific operational tasks. Moreover, it hampered the department’s ability to identify training efficiencies. It is common for staff with experience in processing to develop and deliver pilot program-specific training.
It is also important to note that pilot-specific training within immigration is not necessarily subject to quality assurance reviews.
Without guiding principles, it may be difficult to make the best use of the resources at hand. Which could leave holes in the execution of the pilot program’s operations. Additionally, it could be more challenging to spot new problems in the pilots or to think about lessons learned for future pilots and ongoing programs.
When a pilot program is converted into a permanent program without well-defined guiding principles for managing them. It may be more challenging to make educated, data-driven choices. To support the guiding principles, the accountability division advised IRCC to establish controls and processes that support them.
A pilot program is being developed by the immigration branch and operation sector of the IRCC to standardize their creative execution.
