Operational Bulletin 517 – September 09, 2013

The Settlement Program – The Changes to the Settlement Cost Allocation Matrix and Funding Codes

Summary

This Operational Bulletin (OB) reminds Program Officers and Financial Officers about the amendments made to the Settlement Program. The amendments concerned:

• The Settlement Cost Allocation Matrix and,
• The Financial Coding Structure

The authorities made these amendments in April 2013. Thereafter, they posted a supporting document on the intranet. This supporting document contains examples of:

• Settlement Service activities
• Settlement Service definitions and,
• Associated coding

Issue

This Operational Bulletin (OB) instructs Program Officers and Financial Officers to use the new Settlement Cost Association Matrix. Program Officers and Financial Officers would need to use the new Settlement Cost Association Matrix for generating financial coding. This financial coding concerns the Recipient Claim for Reimbursement of Eligible Expenditures.

Thereafter, the Program Officers and Financial Officers would need to report on the Settlement activities they perform. These changes come into force with immediate effect.

Background

The Settlement Cost Association Matrix provides for the delineation of planned project activities as:

• Language training or,
• All other settlement activities

Both, language training and other settlement services could include the following three components namely:

• Direct services
• Indirect services and,
• Capital, administrative or support services

The authorities have provided two new mandatory internal order codes. Officers would need to use these internal order codes for capturing the language in which they deliver the settlement services. The codes include:

• 1000810 – Settlement services delivered in French or,
• 1000809 – Settlement services delivered in English
• This code also covers settlement services delivered in all other languages except French

Officers would need to use these two new mandatory internal order codes with immediate effect.

Officers would also need to note that the system would no longer accept the default internal order code for processing payments. The default internal order code used for processing payments was 9998.

By virtue of these amendments to the Settlement Program, the authorities have deactivated the following financial coding with immediate effect:

• Fund Code 1105 – Portal
• Fund Code 1104 – Action Plan Against Racism and,
• Fund Code 1106 – The Roadmap to Linguistic Duality, which officers would now need to code under the 1108 Settlement
• The General Ledger Code for GST / HST i.e. 59369, which the authorities will deactivate soon as the officers would henceforth include the GST / HST among the cost categories specified

Officers might need access to more information concerning these changes. Therefore, they could access the following documents on the website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to obtain further information:

• The Grants and Contributions Chart of Accounts (for ensuring that officers use the appropriate codes provided)
• The Procedure on Commitment Control for Grants and Contributions
• The CIC Procedure for Certification (Section 34 of the FAA) Vote 5 (for Grants and Contributions)
• The Negotiating Guidelines contain further information on capital, advances and administration costs

Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)