Deputy Minister of Public Works and Government Services Marie Lemay has told MPs that is is tough to lay any blame for Phoenix failures. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Auditor General Michael Ferguson has unfairly generalized the mismanagement of the handful of executives who led the Phoenix fiasco as a cultural crisis within the leadership of the public service, says the association representing federal executives.

Michel Vermette, chief executive officer of the Association of Professional Executives for the Public Service of Canada (APEX), said many feel the whole executive cadre is tarnished because of the missteps of the executives who botched the decade-long planning and implementation of the Phoenix pay system.

“I think many feel he (Ferguson) made a sweeping generalization that damns an entire community for the failings of a few,” said Vermette. “It’s an unfortunate generalization and people are frustrated by that.

“Show me a group that doesn’t make mistakes. We should learn from those mistakes and it’s healthy to examine failures, but we can’t judge 300,000 public servants and 6,500 executives based on the failures of the few.”

In his report, Ferguson called Phoenix and federal Indigenous programs two “incomprehensible failures.”

But what jolted many public servants was Ferguson’s preface: a searing indictment of the culture, which left unchanged, he said, will lead to more colossal failures and “incomprehensible” mismanagement.

Ferguson described a culture in which deputy ministers have lost influence, who are too sensitive to the demands of political bosses, where accountability is blurred and bureaucrats are obsessed with dodging responsibility. As a result, public service are risk-averse, ‘obedient,’ fear mistakes and obscure the tough truths and use policies as cover for blame.

Vermette said Ferguson’s condemnation of the public service culture is just the latest frustration for executives.

For executives, pay has been a slow-burn issue, with no raises and salary increases that have fallen behind the rest of the public service. On top of that, came the Phoenix debacle, a union attack and Ferguson’s report, which was aimed at the project’s executives.

Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick seemed to say as much in a speech at APEX’s recent symposium when he encouraged executives to stand up for themselves.

The APEX symposium is the biggest meeting of federal executives. This year’s event, which attracted 800 executives, was held the same day Ferguson dropped his bombshell report.

Wernick said the public service took a “beating” and would learn from the Phoenix fiasco. Despite, the “blemishes” and “setbacks,” he said he was confident and optimistic about the public service and the leadership at the helm.

He urged them, however, to speak up, demand respect and advocate for how they want to be paid and managed before politicians make those decisions for them.

Vermette said Wernick’s advice came as a surprise and the APEX board will have to consult with its members to see if they want to alter its low-profile approach.

Executives are a conservative, low-profile bunch and for 30 years have wanted their association to represent them ‘collaboratively’ and ‘respectfully’. They don’t typically rock the boat, make demands, or criticize the government as employer. As a result, APEX has been cautious and quiet in its advocacy.

But executives also generate little public sympathy. They, along with their deputy minister bosses, are typically the highest paid employees, have job security, great pensions and receive performance pay and bonuses.

“We are easy targets,” said Vermette. “We don’t defend ourselves and we’re seen as bosses not as employees.”

Executives are the only federal employees who don’t have a third-party process to advise and advocate for the terms and conditions of their work. Unionized employees have collective bargaining. By law, management can’t unionize. The government can also make unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of executive employment, which it can’t do with union contracts.

Evidence of the disquiet among executives over compensation emerged in APEX’s recent health and work survey. It flagged the lowest satisfaction levels with pay in 20 years, along with mounting workload and longer hours, as worrisome management trends.

The executive salary gap began in 2013-14 when the government started giving executives smaller raises than unionized employees. They have since received raises totalling two per cent while unions have negotiated increases worth between seven and 17 per cent, depending on the contract. The unions are now starting another round of bargaining for the next raise.

For years, executive pay was handled by an now-disbanded independent external advisory committee, which monitored compensation in the public and private sectors and recommended raises and other compensation changes.

“The government would benefit from an arms-length advisory board, whether it re-establishes the previous one or finds another process to give them independent advice on the terms and conditions of work for executives. Something is needed,” said Vermette.

Executives have long speculated that Phoenix is a reason they haven’t had a raise. They surmise the government blames not only PSPC executives but all executives for departments not being ready for the Phoenix rollout. Others say the government doesn’t want to give executive raises until the pay problems of rank-and file employees are resolved. On top of that the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) demanded the government stop paying executives performance bonuses until employees are paid properly.

But some executives say that Ferguson’s report should turn up the pressure to find better ways to deal bad performance.

They argue all public servants are tarnished because no one is accountable and punished. Both the government and Public Services and Procurement Canada have decided not to name the key Phoenix executives who mismanaged Phoenix.

“There has to be visible consequences for bad behaviour,” said one senior executive. “It’s like someone is publicly found guilty of a crime but then we never find out the sentence.”

MPs wrestled with the issue at the government operations committee this week with PSPC officials. NDP MP Daniel Blaikie said public servants shouldn’t live in fear of making mistakes but “you certainly do need accountability.”

“When you have catastrophic failure, you also send a wrong message without anybody really being held accountable for this at the end of the day, which seems to be the situation. What kind of message does that send within the organization,” he said.

Marie Lemay, PSPC’s deputy minister, said it was tough to lay blame when there are “multiple points of failure” over the years. She told MPs she believed the executives who mismanaged Phoenix had no “ill-intent.” They were punished by not getting any performance pay for their work on Phoenix for 2015-16, when Phoenix was launched.

“I don’t believe anyone acted with ill-intent but the two senior executives responsible for the project, who reported to the deputy minister, did not properly assess the complexity of the undertaking, the cumulative impact of their decisions or the seriousness of the early warning signs.

She said neither of the executives are working in pay operations but one still works for government.

The Trudeau government recently changed the rules to claw back performance pay of deputy ministers if they are found guilty of misconduct or mismanagement – even after they retired.

The claw back won’t apply to revolving door of deputy ministers or associate deputy ministers accountable for Phoenix over the eight years of planning and implementation because they are grandfathered under the old rules.

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