The Impact of Review

The impact of review by an office such as mine may be direct or indirect. Assessing that impact is inherently difficult because, if effective, its main influence is on preventing unlawful or undesirable acts or things from happening.

Indirect impacts can result simply from the existence and mandate of a review body, and the effect these have on how the reviewed organization conducts its affairs. Nevertheless, my observations and discussions over the past three years make me confident that the mandate and work of my office has a positive influence on the manner in which CSE carries out its activities and on helping to ensure that they are conducted in compliance with the law.

The findings and recommendations of specific reviews have a more direct impact — particularly as a result of the action that the reviewed organization takes in response to them. When warranted by the findings, my review reports may include recommendations for action by CSE to correct deficiencies in policies, procedures or practices that increase the risk of unlawful activity. The status of recommendations is the subject of periodic discussions between my staff and CSE, and my office continues to track their disposition.

I am encouraged by CSE's positive response to the recommendations my office has made. Of almost 100 recommendations made by the CSE Commissioner since the establishment of this office, 75 percent were accepted by CSE and have either been fully implemented or are at various stages of being implemented. Half of the remaining recommendations were accepted with some modifications or are very recent and are still being considered by CSE. The remainder were either bypassed by events or, in a few cases, not accepted by CSE. Where CSE has either accepted recommendations with modifications or has rejected them, CSE officials have explained the reasons to me, with some discussions still pending.

I commend the new Chief of CSE for his ready acceptance of the importance of review, and welcome his continuing cooperation and willingness to help my office monitor the status of recommendations as an important indicator of the impact of review.