Auditor General: Security and Medical Surveillance of Immigrants & Refugees & Forms Control Problems

Is there a medical and financing bombshell coming down the pike? Very interesting.

According to the AG, of 137,119 skilled workers, 58,860 were principal applicants bringing 78,259 dependants. That is a program intended to bring skilled workers that brings 57% dependants. There is inadequate medical surveillance . . . another must read best seller from the AG.



There are two parts to what follows:

1. The Auditor-General's 2000 Report: Table of Contents -- which indicated areas that needed change

2. The Auditor-General's follow-up on Chapter 3 -- Some things never change.


1. Citizenship and Immigration Canada -- The Economic Component of the Canadian Immigration Program

* Main Points
o Background and other observations
* Introduction [. . . . ]
* Observations and Recommendations
o Immigration Offices Abroad Cannot Cope With the Task
+ Immigration levels not met, longer processing, and applications in process increasing
+ Imbalance between resources available and work required to ensure Program integrity
+ Much better information needed on resources required in offices abroad
+ Employees deeply concerned
o The Quality and Consistency of Selection Decisions Are at Risk
+ Selection criteria not conducive to attaining Program objectives
+ Visa officers receive insufficient training
+ Officers need better tools to evaluate applications
+ No framework for monitoring quality of decisions
+ Need for better ways to protect against fraudulent applications
o Controls to Protect Canadian Society Are Deficient
+ Significant weaknesses in determining medical admissibility
+ Serious constraints on ability to establish criminality and security admissibility
o Offshore Applications Add to Processing Difficulties
o Technology Used Does Not Permit Efficient Delivery of Services Abroad
+ Numerous efforts to upgrade the systems have failed
+ Offices abroad are buried in paperwork
o Department Highly Vulnerable to Fraud and Other Irregularities
+ Revenue control is inadequate
+ Visa form control needs to be improved
+ Computer systems are not adequately protected
+ Resources allocated to evaluation and internal audit are clearly insufficient
o A Need to Measure Results and Report Them to Parliament and the Public
+ Department focusses performance measurement on meeting immigration levels
+ The information provided to parliamentarians is limited
* Conclusion
* About the Audit

2.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada — The Economic Component of the Canadian Immigration Program

[. . . . ] 3.2 Citizenship and Immigration Canada has taken a number of steps with regard to medical surveillance including establishing a Medical Surveillance Unit in a new Medical Services Branch. However, we are still concerned that the Department does not know what percentage of immigrants comply with medical surveillance requirements and within what time frame. It is important that the Department ensure that immigrants under medical surveillance report to the relevant public health authorities and thus comply with the conditions attached to their visas. We also identified a new issue—refugee claimants and public health authorities in the provinces and territories are not notified when a claimant requires medical surveillance for inactive tuberculosis. [. . . . ]

3.26 With the implementation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Business Immigration Centres no longer exist. All offices abroad now accept and process business applications. There is a need for training in this area, as most of the visa officers have little experience with business applications. . . . a new module was developed for the visa officer course given in the winter of 2003. [. . . . ]

3.35 Our field visits indicated that immigration officers at airports were familiar with and understood the new instructions. However, some officers at land borders were not familiar with them or their importance. After our field visits, the Medical Surveillance Unit provided training to immigration officers at airports in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, and Calgary and at Ontario land borders at Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, and Windsor.

3.36 If the Department finds out that an immigrant is delinquent in reporting for medical surveillance, it takes no action apart from making a remark in the Field Operations Support System. The Department denies further actions such as citizenship or sponsorship until the immigrant resumes medical surveillance. [. . . . ]

3.37 Lack of medical surveillance for cases of inactive tuberculosis among refugee claimants. [. . . . ]

Criminality and security inadmissibility

3.40 Under sections 34 to 37 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, visa officers can deny applicants entry into Canada on several grounds related to criminality and security. [. . . . ]


Fraudulent documents

3.47 . . . . Submission of fraudulent documents and misrepresentation is a continuing threat to the integrity of the Immigration Program. In many countries people can easily obtain fraudulent documents and readily use them as support for immigration applications.

3.48 . . . . Our 2000 Report stated that the Department had noted an increase in the submission of false statements and fraudulent documents. We said the Department had been tolerant of applications accompanied by false statements and fraudulent documents. [. . . . ]

3.60 Limited progress in implementing a department-wide framework to monitor quality of selection decisions. [. . . . ]


Forms control

3.79 Visa forms control is an essential measure to guard against abuse. In the 2000 Report we had several concerns. We found that the Immigration Visa and Record of Landing document (IMM1000) was outdated and easy to falsify. In addition, departmental records showed that some visas had been stolen and that procedures were not in place to ensure that officers consistently applied controls.


The new Permanent Resident Card

3.80 The Department replaced the IMM1000 as of 28 June 2002. A new form, the Confirmation of Permanent Residence (IMM5292) confirms the residence status of new immigrants. It is used to issue the new Permanent Resident Card. This card has a number of security features that the IMM1000 did not have. Another new form, the Permanent Resident Visa (IMM1346), is included in an individual's passport as a travel document.

Problems still exist with forms control

3.81 We found several problems with forms control during our visits to immigration offices abroad. Officers were not always following the required control procedures. Three examples: some offices were not reporting quarterly inventories of documents to headquarters; one office was not reconciling on a daily basis visas that were used; and not all offices had two Canadian officers present when counting inventories of forms.

3.82 One Canada-based officer is selected at each office abroad to be a forms control officer. Most forms control officers at the offices we visited felt that they needed training and guidance for their position. To address this need, the Department has developed new instructions on forms control and these are available electronically. [. . . . ]


Measuring results and reporting to Parliament [. . . . ]

3.85 Performance indicators and reports to Parliament remain focussed on immigration levels. . . .

3.86 The Department reports annually to Parliament in its departmental performance report. It also presents an annual report to Parliament on the operation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for the preceding calendar year as required by section 94 of the Act. We reviewed several years' worth of departmental performance reports and the 2002 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration.

We are concerned that the information presented to Parliament on the number of skilled workers entering Canada may be misunderstood. For example, the 2002 Departmental Performance Report states that the number of skilled workers landed in Canada in 2001 is 137,119. The information would be more clearly presented as 137,119 skilled workers, consisting of 58,860 principal applicants and 78,259 dependants. The 2002 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration also did not provide the composition of skilled workers. We have the same concern for the presentation of the numbers of business immigrants. We noted that the information does exist in a document, Facts and Figures 2001, which can be found on the Department's Web site. www.cic.gc.ca/english/pub/facts2001/index.html

[Check for Facts and Figures 2001]

3.87 Recommendation. The Department should include additional information in its departmental performance report, such as the number of applications on hand and processing times for applications. In that report and in its annual report to Parliament on immigration, the Department should give the numbers of both principal applicants and accompanying family members. [. . . . ]

3.88 . . . Conclusion [. . . . ] This follow-up focussed on the recommendations made in our April 2000 Report, Chapter 3, The Economic Component of the Canadian Immigration Program [. . . . ]

3.89 Greater attention needs to be paid to medical surveillance of immigrants and refugee claimants to ensure that public health authorities are notified promptly of individuals that require surveillance. The Department still has to put into place a department-wide quality assurance framework to ensure the consistency, fairness, and integrity of selection decisions. [. . . . ]

Finally, the Auditor General mentions: "We did not look at controls over medical admissibility at offices abroad."

Does anyone else see a medical care and $$$ bombshell coming down the pike? We could probably add that to the criminality bombshell which is already surfacing from previous laxity . . . not on the part of the Auditor General, I hasten to point out.

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