Effective: April 1, 2016

Applicable FAM Policies: 130 - Approval Authorities

Applicability: GNWT Departments and Public Agencies

INTERPRETATION

Contract Authority

The Contract Regulations authorizes only the Minister or Deputy Minister of the department in respect of which the contract is to be made to delegate contract authority to a public officer, who may further sub-delegate the powers and duties only by the terms of the original delegation. The delegation including restrictions, exceptions or conditions must be provided for through the Specimen Signature Record (SSR).

Only someone with contract authority has the legal right to sign a contract on behalf of the government.

Instrument of Delegation (IOD)

Any power or duty that is defined by the FAA and is capable of delegation must be delegated by way of an IOD, similar to the example provided in IB 130.04, or as a standard delegation specified under IB 130.03.

An IOD must be issued by one delegator and apply to only one delegate. However, it may record the delegation of any number of powers or duties. The IOD must be kept readily available for reference and audit purposes. Powers and duties delegated with an IOD may include permission to sub-delegate unless legislation prevents it. A power or duty delegated with an IOD is delegated on the basis of the delegator's assessment of the delegate's personal ability to exercise the power or duty responsibly and appropriately.

Standard Delegations

Standard powers and duties are delegated by the FMB, Minister, Deputy Minister or the Comptroller General through Regulations or by this Policy, as specified IB 130.03, to designated public officers. However, any delegated power or duty may be withdrawn at the discretion of the delegator.

Designation

Ministers are expenditure officers by definition in the FAA. Section 83 of the FAA, requires Ministers to designate expenditure officers and accounting officers for their departments by naming them or by referring to their positions in their department.

Only public officers, as defined in section 1 of the FAA, including an individual doing business as service contractor of a department, may be designated as an expenditure officer, accounting officer and/or revenue officer. A corporation is not eligible to be designated, nor can a bank or investment company.

No person shall be designated as an accounting officer without the approval of the Comptroller General. (FAA s. 83)

A person may be designated concurrently as expenditure officer, accounting officer and revenue officer with contract authority; but, no person shall act as both expenditure or revenue officer and accounting officer in the same transaction unless required by other legislation, e.g., the requirement for social workers to issue emergency cheques ( FAA s. 83)

A person designated as a permanent or acting expenditure officer, accounting officer revenue officer must be identified by name and position on an SSR. The SSR must also include the person's written signature and signature date.

Financial Authority

Financial authority including all matters related to financial management and financial administration and the authority to enter into a contract must be recorded on a Financial Approval Authorities Spreadsheet and supported by an SSR for each position.

Ministers and Deputy Ministers may set monetary limits, restrictions, conditions and exceptions to the approval authority of expenditure and accounting officers pursuant to the Delegation of Authority Regulations section 5.

Ministers, Deputy Ministers or their delegates may set limits, restrictions, conditions and exceptions for contract authorities to enter into contracts pursuant to the Government Contract Regulations.

Ministers and their delegates may authorize designated public officers to make general ledger, trust account and special purpose fund entries, e.g., transactions, settlements and adjustments, as well as single authority disbursements. The delegator may set monetary limits, restrictions, conditions and exceptions to the approval authority of those officers, which must be identified in the SSR.

Financial authorities must be established in a manner and form that provides control over disbursement of public money by adequately enforcing an appropriate separation (division) of duties.

Acting Appointments and Standing Acting Appointments

A person appointed to act on behalf of a position shall not exercise the financial approval authorities of that position unless specifically authorized to do so by an SSR.

For acting and standing acting appointments, the supervisor of the position for which the appointee will act must approve the appointment on the SSR. The supervisor may impose lowered monetary limits, restrictions, conditions or exceptions that would not normally apply to the signing authority of the position.

The person normally holding the position, for which an appointee will act, may by means of a memorandum to the supervisor, establish an acting appointment. A standing acting appointment is not activated simply by the absence of the person normally holding the position for which the appointee will act, notice must be given.

The Comptroller General (or their delegate) may exercise full accounting authority on behalf of all departments in all regions. However, expenditure officer authorization is required from the department prior to a disbursement affecting the budget of the department.

Designated Financial Authorities in Other Departments

In accordance with section 84 and 85 of the FAA, an expenditure or accounting officer may act for another department only with the consent of the Deputy Minister of the other department and the consent of the Comptroller General for an accounting officer. Examples include payroll, capital, and removal expenditures or liabilities.

When possible, a delegation should provide any limits that are appropriate to the delegated power or duty and associated requirements for accountability in the SSR. For example, limited authority to spend public money on a certain kind of contract should be delegated in numerical terms, e.g., to a particular dollar value per contract.

Functions that should not be combined

1. Approval/Commitment of Expenditure and Authorization for Payment: these functions are to be kept separate in all but exceptional circumstances;
2. Financial Approval and Ordering: the officer who decides that money is to be spent, shall not, in isolation, select the supplier. (this would not apply where the purchasing decision is part of a central framework arrangement);
3. Certification and Accounting Authorization: should not normally be carried out by the same person because authorization of payment is a check on certification of goods or services and a claim for payment.

If the process or other circumstances do not allow for such separations of duties, adequate internal control measures must be implemented (e.g. procurement credit cards).

Re-issuing Delegations

Amendments made to a statutory provision that is delegated does not invalidate any prior IOD, it continues to apply to the section, as amended. It is, therefore, unnecessary to reissue the delegation.

Where the Board, Minister, Deputy Minister or Comptroller General has delegated power derived from the FAA and Regulations and, the relevant legislative provisions are amended, the Office of the Comptroller General, Finance, will determine whether it is necessary to reissue delegations.

Note also that a designation through a Financial Approval Authorities Spreadsheet is not negated through a change only in the incumbent occupying the position that holds a delegation if the delegation is at the position level. Therefore, a new delegation (i.e., IOD) is not always required when a staff member, of the position that holds the delegation, changes. However, before they can exercise their delegation an SSR must be signed and on file.

It should be noted that when a delegation is repealed or withdrawn, this does not render any previous, duly authorized actions as invalid.

Withdrawing delegations

The FAA allows the delegator to withdraw a delegation at any time, either in whole or in part. For example, if the power to delegate is exercisable only with the Minister's approval, the power to revoke the delegation is exercisable only with the Minister's approval.

In instances where there is a transfer of functions between departments, delegations cease. For example, where there is a transfer of function from one department (the originating department), to another (the receiving department), delegations of power to officers within the originating department who are responsible for performing those functions will cease to have effect at the time the functions, together with relevant staff, are transferred. New delegations will need to be made for staff holding the equivalent position in the receiving department.

The IOD for both the originating and receiving departments are to be amended accordingly. Similar considerations apply in the case of discontinued departments. Delegations of power to officers of that department will cease to have effect at the time the department is discontinued. If the functions performed by the discontinued department are transferred to another department (the receiving department), the usual course is to create positions in the receiving department equivalent to the positions in the discontinued department.

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