Frequently Asked Questions – The General Assessment

The General Assessment (GA) Workbook is intended to support an ongoing dialogue with recipients concerning the management of their funding agreements. Recipients may also find the results helpful to support their own planning efforts. A standard approach is used to assess all recipients to ensure that policy requirements are met and due diligence is exercised.

The GA Workbook is divided into two parts:

• Part A – for more complex funding relationships (e.g., with First Nation and Inuit communities or other Aboriginal organizations with whom AANDC has an ongoing relationship), and who may manage a broad range of public services; and
• Part B – for less complex funding relationships (e.g., to fund a one-time, stand-alone project or to fund various organizations to deliver a specific service).

The assessment is completed by AANDC staff, and then shared and discussed with recipients. Recipients are encouraged to become familiar with the GA Workbook. It can serve as a discussion tool that might help recipients identify areas they may want to address. Recipients can also provide additional information to support the results of the assessment.

Key elements assessed in the GA Workbook include:

• governance;
• planning;
• financial management; and
• program management.

Results of the GA may potentially impact:

• duration of funding agreements;
• frequency and type of monitoring and recipient auditing;
• cash management (including advances and holdbacks); and
• availability of certain funding approaches.

The GA may impact a recipient's ability to access certain funding approaches. Each contribution funding approach has specific parameters to determine how surpluses are to be managed. Refer to AANDC's funding approaches for more information.

• Recipients have the ability to discuss areas of concern with AANDC officials, and work jointly to identify and develop solutions.
• Depending on the results of the GA and other criteria, recipients may have the ability to enter into multi-year agreements.
• AANDC monitoring activities (on-site visits, compliance reviews and recipient audits) may be impacted by the GA.
• Depending on GA results and other criteria, recipients may have access to a wider range of funding approaches.

Depending on the range and types of programs that are being delivered, Aboriginal recipients may be considered for more flexible contribution approaches where they have demonstrated capacity.  The GA is used to assess required capacity to access the flexible contribution approach and whether the recipient may be considered for further assessment to determine eligibility for the block contribution approach. In addition, a low risk recipient may also benefit from more flexible cash management approaches including smaller or no hold-backs, where they are required. 

For recipients that have an ongoing funding relationship with AANDC for the delivery of programs and/or services, there is an opportunity to receive a multi-year funding agreement that can last up to 10 years. Duration is based on risk profiles. Please note that funding levels will still be adjusted annually based on the available budgets. 

The GA may identify areas of improvement and should support joint AANDC-recipient planning to address these issues. Additionally, the opportunity to use the multi-year agreement and additional contribution approaches will support long-term planning.

The GA may identify specific areas that require additional attention or investment and which may be improved in support of capacity development.

The recipient can review the assessment and provide additional information for consideration by the department.

Contact departmental officials at your regional office or program sector.